The Federal Government Debt: Its Size and Economic Significance

Abstract

After being in surplus between FY1998 and FY2001, the federal budget has now registered deficits for the last four fiscal years. The budget, given current policies, is now projected to remain in deficit through FY2011. When the budget was in surplus, the policy issues were whether or not it would be worthwhile to pay off the national debt and whether or not the existence of public debt provided some economic benefits. For the time being, those are no longer issues. Instead, the question is what are the risks associated with a rising federal debt.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 25, 2007
Accession Number
ADA462106

Entities

People

  • Brian W. Cashell

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Budgets
  • Commerce
  • Congress
  • Economic Analysis
  • Federal Budgets
  • Finance
  • Governments
  • Investments
  • Law
  • Living Standards
  • Local Governments
  • Money
  • National Governments
  • Second World War
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • United States Government

Fields of Study

  • Economics

Readers

  • Defense Financial Management and Audit.
  • Educational Psychology
  • Naval Personnel Management