US economy

Overview

This page is a portal for articles and information about various aspects of the United States economy, including:

• The various ways in which the governments allocates and spends money and incurs debt
  • US Presidential administration budgets
  • US military spending
• Various economic indicators
• Certain kinds of unavoidable expenses which can be improved or worsened by government regulation
  • United States health care costs
• Anything else that seems related

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Terminology

• budget deficit: the amount of money which the United States must borrow in order to meet the federal budget; such borrowing increases the public debt. Opposite of budget surplus.
• budget surplus: the amount of money left over in the federal budget after everything has been allocated. This money can be used to pay off the public debt. (Note: not sure if it automatically does this, or if there are other things that can be done with it.) Opposite of budget deficit.
• public debt: the amount of money owed by the United States federal government to creditors who hold US Debt Instruments. This does not include the money owed by states, corporations, or individuals, nor does it include the money owed to Social Security beneficiaries in the future. Common synonyms include: national debt, gross federal debt, U.S. government debt Creditors charge interest on the public debt, so it increases each year unless there is a budget surplus sufficient to (at least) pay off that year's interest.

A budget deficit increases the public debt; a budget surplus can decrease it, but only if there is still some left over after paying off that year's interest.

Links

Reference

• The Debt To the Penny (currently $8 trillion) from the Bureau of the Public Debt
• graph of the US budget deficit/surplus, 1961-present
• Wikipedia:
  • United States public debt
    • History of the U.S. public debt

News

• 2006-03-03 Current Budget Projections (Congressional Budget Office): HTML PDF
• 2005-10-14 US budget deficit shrinks in 2005: "Despite falling from 2004's record $412bn figure, the federal deficit for the fiscal year ending last month was still the third highest on record."
• 2004-12 The US Budget Deficit: On an Unsustainable Path (most of article is in PDF form)
• 2004-10-14 U.S. budget deficit expands to $412.5 billion
• 2004-02-02 Does the US budget deficit matter? (analysis by Steve Schifferes, BBC News Online economics reporter)