Big deficits and rising mountains of public debt. Is it a nightmare? No, it’s the fiscal profile du jour of these United States. Or is it both? In any case, assuming Congress keeps current laws and policies intact, the federal budget deficit, as a share of the economy, is on track for fiscal 2010 to be the second highest since World War Two, the CBO projects.
Daily Archives: March 4, 2010
THE PLOT THICKENS IN THE LABOR MARKET
Today’s weekly update on new jobless claims offers a reprieve on the darker visions conjured on these pages in recent weeks, including here. New filings for unemployment benefits dropped last week to by 29,000 to 469,000. Whew, that was a close one! But the risk for this series that we’ve been discussing lately is still with us, even if the latest report offers some breathing room for thinking positively.