The Shrinking Economy
America’s economy
Aug 16th 2005
From Economist.com
GEORGE BUSH has the dubious distinction of presiding over the largest negative budget swing in American history: from a surplus of $236 billion in 2000, the year he was elected, to a deficit of $412 billion, or 3.6% of GDP, when he stood again in 2004. Even in an economy with output of around $12 trillion, $648 billion is a lot of money to misplace.
Analysts were aghast when the Bush administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) projected that the fiscal year to September 2005 would bring bigger deficits still: $427 billion, according to numbers released in February. The more cynical observers suggested that the administration was simply releasing a gargantuan number for the pleasure of later telling voters that the budget deficit was closing faster than expected. In support of their argument, figures released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in March projected a deficit of only $365 billion. …
What do you guys think of this topic? The Canadian dollar for the first time in over 30 years has become larger than the United States dollar.