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Reading this article, there is a line saying,

Still, CBO Director Phillip Swagel said in a statement that a crisis is not immediately at hand. “There is no set tipping point at which a fiscal crisis becomes likely or imminent, nor is there an identifiable point at which interest costs as a percentage of GDP become unsustainable,” Swagel said. “But as the debt grows, the risks become greater.”

I kind of feel it, but it is a bit ambigeuos to me.

Is the meaning of the verb "tipping" defined at this dictionary,, intransitive, 2, "lean, slant"?

Thank you for your help and kindly be reminded my next look might be later because I have to work.

1 Answer 1

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Neither set nor tipping are used as verbs in that phrase:

tipping point noun

: the critical point in a situation, process, or system beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tipping%20point

set adjective

3 : fixed by authority, appointment, or agreement
// The wedding is set [=scheduled] for early June
// Students can drop in during set [=designated] office hours

5a : immovable, rigid
// set frown

6 : settled, persistent
// set defiance

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/set

So, all together, the sentence means: there is no predetermined/well-established/consistent point when a fiscal crisis tips over (crosses a threshold) into an inevitability. Or, put more simply: we can't identify the conditions that make a fiscal crisis likely or sure to happen.

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