The Bush administration gave details Wednesday on how it plans to borrow the billions of dollars it will need to cope with the soaring budget deficits.
Ross Perot is jumping back into the political fray, this time with a stern warning that the country better start paying attention to the national debt.
The federal budget deficit for the first five months of this fiscal year has risen more than 60% from the prior year after ballooning by more than expected in February, the Treasury Department said Wednesday.
Bush administration officials Monday expressed doubt about an economist's column published over the weekend saying the war in Iraq will cost the United States more than $3 trillion.
U.S. taxpayers would get checks of several hundred dollars from the federal government under a plan to stimulate the economy, congressional and Bush administration officials said Thursday.
President Bush's assurances that we'll all be "just fine" if he and Congress can work out an economic stimulus package seem a little hollow this morning.
With 2008 expected to show the weakest growth for retail sales in years, Americans sorely need some incentive to keep shopping.
Despite the subprime mortgage crisis and the rising risk of a recession, a recession isn't likely under current conditions, credit ratings agency Moody's said in a report Friday.
The Senate voted Thursday to block a looming tax increase averaging $2,000 for millions of taxpayers after Senate Republicans succeeded in thwarting a Democratic plan to also raise taxes on investors.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told Congress on Wednesday that the federal government will hit the current debt ceiling on Oct. 1.
The Bush administration gave details Wednesday on how it plans to borrow the billions of dollars it will need to cope with the soaring budget deficits.
Ross Perot is jumping back into the political fray, this time with a stern warning that the country better start paying attention to the national debt.
The federal budget deficit for the first five months of this fiscal year has risen more than 60% from the prior year after ballooning by more than expected in February, the Treasury Department said Wednesday.
Bush administration officials Monday expressed doubt about an economist's column published over the weekend saying the war in Iraq will cost the United States more than $3 trillion.
U.S. taxpayers would get checks of several hundred dollars from the federal government under a plan to stimulate the economy, congressional and Bush administration officials said Thursday.
President Bush's assurances that we'll all be "just fine" if he and Congress can work out an economic stimulus package seem a little hollow this morning.
With 2008 expected to show the weakest growth for retail sales in years, Americans sorely need some incentive to keep shopping.
Despite the subprime mortgage crisis and the rising risk of a recession, a recession isn't likely under current conditions, credit ratings agency Moody's said in a report Friday.
The Senate voted Thursday to block a looming tax increase averaging $2,000 for millions of taxpayers after Senate Republicans succeeded in thwarting a Democratic plan to also raise taxes on investors.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told Congress on Wednesday that the federal government will hit the current debt ceiling on Oct. 1.
A Senate panel on Wednesday approved an increase in the limit on the national debt to $9.82 trillion, the fifth increase in the government's borrowing limit since President Bush took office.
There will be lots of celebrating in Washington next month when the Treasury announces that the federal budget deficit for fiscal 2007, which ends September 30, will have dropped to a mere $158 billion, give or take a few bucks.
He has recently made stops in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, giving speeches and holding town hall meetings. But he's not seeking the presidency.
The nation's top accountant has watched with growing alarm as the amount of money the country owes has skyrocketed.
The following is Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony before the House Budget Committee on Wednesday:
Just think about all the things the Dow Jones industrial average has had to overcome to surpass its January 2000 high: war, ballooning federal debt, rising interest rates, soaring oil prices, a hou...
My wife and I are 40 and we put about 13 percent of our yearly income into our 401(k) and Roth IRAs. We worry, however, when we read about the huge national debt, the trade deficit and the high level of borrowing most Americans have taken on. What effect will the spending habits of others have on my retirement -- and is there anything I can do about it?
Vice President Dick Cheney reportedly opined years ago that Ronald Reagan proved deficits don't matter. Politically, that's been true; it's hard to find a voter upset about the growing national debt and all that. But maybe they should be.
The White House's Roosevelt Room is wired for PowerPoint presentations, and most officials also bring handouts when they brief George W. Bush and his inner circle. But Budget Director Josh Bolten, who has spent months walking the President through a problem that could dramatically affect his legacy, sticks to colorful charts on old-fashioned easels. The lights stay on, so nobody dozes off, and there's no paper to wander through. It's dense material, after all. "I keep everyone's attention focused on what I want them to focus on," Bolten said.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Who's afraid of the big bad federal budget deficit? Not the bond or currency markets.
The budget deficit will be about $331 billion this year, down from March's estimate of $365 billion, the Congressional Budget Office said in a new forecast released Monday morning.
House Republican leaders expect to hold a vote later this year on a plan to divert Social Security surpluses into private accounts, an approach that differs sharply from President Bush's call to let workers invest a portion of their payroll taxes in the financial markets.
A survey finds affluent Americans growing more concerned about the state of the economy.
Treasury prices fell Tuesday while the dollar extended losses as traders digested a less-than-expected decline in retail sales and prepared for the outcome of Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's testimony before lawmakers.
Now is the time to address the nation's Social Security problem, President Bush said Thursday, instead of leaving it for future administrations and generations to deal with.
WASHINGTON (Creators Syndicate) -- Forget all the snide knocks at the eccentric Texas billionaire, Ross Perot proved conclusively in his 1992 independent run for the presidency that even a losing candidate, with a strong message, can profoundly change national policy.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned the U.S. must deal with the causes of the weak dollar -- the U.S. trade deficit and the federal budget deficit -- or the country could run into economic problems down the line.
It's back to the salt mines for federal lawmakers.
The Arabic-language network Al-Jazeera released a full transcript Monday of the most recent videotape from Osama bin Laden in which the head of al Qaeda said his group's goal is to force America into bankruptcy.
1 Sure, Bush and Kerry have their differences, but they also have something in common: Their numbers don't add up. Draw a line connecting each candidate to the amount his proposals are likely to ad...
George Bush and John Kerry disagree about lots of things, but when it comes to economics, they have the same message: Vote for me, and you'll be better off. It's a simple, direct appeal to voters' ...
George Bush and John Kerry disagree about lots of things, but when it comes to economics, they have the same message: Vote for me, and you'll be better off.
There is an important question that, if asked of either presidential candidate during the upcoming debates, is guaranteed to elicit an evasive nonanswer. It goes something like this: "All the fisca...
House Democrats missed two important opportunities last week.
Are the budget deficits, the national debt and the financial problems of the Social Security system smoke and mirrors -- that is, something our "all talk and no action" politicians just like to squabble about? Or are they something we really need to worry about?
Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan recently surprised almost everyone when he reversed his view that the nearly half-trillion-dollar federal budget deficit is a threat to the American ec...
Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan recently surprised almost everyone when he reversed his view that the nearly half-trillion-dollar federal budget deficit is a threat to the American economy.
Treasury prices retreated Friday as an essentially stable reading on U.S. consumer confidence gave bond traders an excuse to sell after a giant rally over the past week.
Treasury prices climbed Monday as the dollar's retreat heightened the chances of foreign central bank buying at this week's U.S. debt auction, and a fall on the stock markets provided extra support.
When Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testifies on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Wall Street will listen closely for clues about the future path of Fed policy, while politicians will hope for some warnings about the swollen federal budget deficit.
Who doesn't love low interest rates?
The economy is surging, unemployment is shrinking, and the Dow has reconquered 10,000. So why then is Robert Rubin convinced the sky is falling?
Should America pay off its debt?
One of the notable things about the presidential primaries so far is the largely superficial treatment given to the candidates' economic views. Charges and countercharges about tax reform, tax cuts...
Could the national debt soon be an endangered species? Although $7.5 trillion in outstanding notes and bonds won't fade away quickly, the capital is agog with the notion that both the deficit and t...
No question about it. We must get the federal budget deficit under control. Talk about government waste. Some 14% of all federal spending is thrown away each year paying the $203 billion in interes...
WANT TO PIN a face on America's persistent deficit and savings crisis? Forget those hoary cliches -- the welfare queen, lazy bureaucrat, greedy businessman, weapons-crazed general, or rich Third Wo...
CHANCES ARE that the current decade has not been particularly kind to you. Even if you are not among the millions whose jobs vanished, you may be covering for a slew of fallen colleagues and workin...
With this issue, MONEY launches a monthly readers' poll. In these pages, we will ask for your opinions on matters ranging from how to improve the quality of the nation's public schools to the best ...
YOU SAY you've heard enough about the federal budget deficit? You know it will come to roughly $314 billion in fiscal 1992? You know the national debt grew from nearly $1 trillion ten years ago to ...
Dear Mr. Statistics: I am 68 and used to dozing off any time the national debt comes under discussion. But now the fellows at the tavern tell me interest on the debt is rising more rapidly than fed...
Say this for the Administration's budget proposal: As announced at the end of January, it would not do major harm to the economy. Trouble is, there's no telling what Congress will add when it makes...
IS THERE an economic phenomenon more frustrating than the federal budget deficit? For a decade it has mocked us, defying all efforts to eliminate it -- from the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act of 1985, w...
Today the U.S. has the world's highest standard of living, but we will not retain that No. 1 position forever if we become complacent. Left unattended, four worrisome domestic problems -- our low s...
TO MERE taxpaying mortals, the dollars committed to Desert Storm look as awesome as the battle itself. Every time a cruise missile goes off, it's more than $1 million. Scud-busting Patriots cost so...
IT IS 1995. The federal budget deficit is gone -- replaced by a budget surplus. The government has just paid off $101 billion of the national debt. Inflation, at 1.5%, is so insignificant that peop...
The chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, Michael J. Boskin, is one of the key craftsmen of Bush's economic policy. He joined Bush long before the election and has lots of what ...
For too long the federal government has been a chronic borrower, draining the nation's scarce supply of savings, driving up interest rates, raising the cost of capital, damping investment, worsenin...
AMERICA ENTERS the 1990s bristling with opportunity. The spread of pluralistic, democratic capitalism -- a victory for American ideals and policy -- promises a world bound more tightly together, la...
Want to worry less about the federal deficit? Have I got the book for you. Robert Heilbroner and Peter Bernstein have just published a slim and readable tome called The Debt and the Deficit (W.W. N...
The best way for the federal government to get its financial house in order? Increase the gasoline tax, substantially. Most proponents of this idea cite the need for more federal revenue and the vi...
YOU DIDN'T REALLY expect the election to sweep away all economic uncertainty, did you? True, the transition from one Republican in the White House to another who was living nearby should be smoothe...
The subject of On Borrowed Time (ICS Press, $24.95) is of the utmost importance. It is the so-called entitlement programs of the federal government: Social Security, Medicare, and pensions. Are we ...
The Democrats' main economic argument against George Bush is that his boss presided over a doubling of the national debt. The argument has been effective; it taps into the vague fear that terrible ...
ENTER the strange world of Social Security, as exotically inside out as the domain of black holes and anti-matter that physicists describe. Within the borders of this unexpected land the U.S. runs ...
SO YOU THINK a recession is bound to come before the end of next year. The expansion is aging -- it's so ancient it's creaking, you say. Well, think again. We're here to tell you it still has a way...
LAST MONTH'S 100-point drop in the Dow, triggered by disappointing news about the U.S. trade deficit, was a glint on the sword that hangs over the world financial system. In another month or so, Am...
Six weeks after Black Monday, the broadest measures of the stock market slipped to new lows as investors here and abroad lost faith in the politicians' will to reduce the federal deficit and prop u...
SO INTEREST rates are heading down, down, down, you think. How could it be otherwise? No longer in the do-or-die dollar defense mode, the Federal Reserve has been pouring on the money. Avoiding rec...
''Our goal, which is a goal we think we can achieve during fiscal year 1972, is to operate with a balanced budget.'' -- President Richard Nixon, July 1970 1972 federal budget deficit: $23.4 billion...
A fainthearted dollar, strikes at South African gold mines and political mayhem in the Middle East couldn't stop the stock market in August. In a month with 21 trading days, the Dow Jones industria...
After five years of charting new heights, the stock market continued to climb in July, as tremendous worldwide liquidity poured into Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average set six record hig...
) AS THE U.S. ECONOMY heads toward an unprecedented sixth year of peacetime expansion, it faces some formidable hurdles. FORTUNE expects they will be overcome, clearing the way for comfortable GNP ...
A stronger U.S. dollar and steady interest rates propelled most of the major indexes to new records. Five times in June the Dow Jones industrial average set new highs -- the last at 2451.05 -- and ...
The stock market clung close to its historic highs last month despite a trio of troubles: rising interest rates, trade worries and the deadly attack on the Stark in oil's troubled waters. Then earl...
Eyeball to eyeball with widespread optimistic forecasts, the investment markets blinked last month. The declining dollar set off a chain reaction of fears about rising interest rates and inflation....
THE DOLLAR'S long flirtation with free fall had never seemed closer to consummation. Ignoring threats of intervention, the markets bashed the buck with renewed vengeance just after the major indust...
After gaining some 25% during the first quarter, the market declined 94 points in two trading sessions near the end of March, when the plunging dollar and rising inflation seemed to point toward an...
The latest idea in Washington -- to instantly make good on the boldface above -- is to have the government spend more money. Wait, do not slink away so fast. We know that spending money is not a ne...
The bulls began to sniff the flowers last month. Although the major stock indexes gained, it was the more fragile secondary issues that really bloomed. Technology stocks led with a 9.8% increase, f...
The Social Security system is headed for unaccustomed trouble in the coming years -- gigantic surpluses. By the mid-Nineties the old age, survivors, and disability portion of Social Security will b...
DESPITE the seemingly endless dithering and prevarication, Washington has truly begun to attack the federal deficit. Progress will not be as impressive as President Reagan predicts -- his recent bu...
The new year started with a frenzy on Wall Street. During January's 21 trading days, the Dow Jones industrial average had only four sessions when the index ended down; of the up days, seven showed ...
In a month when major scandals erupted on Wall Street and in Washington, the stock and bond markets seemed to have developed a life of their own. Despite Irangate and a panic drop of 43 points on t...
THE JAPANESE are about to descend on Pearl Harbor again, not to bomb but to build. They will festoon this historic terrain with lagoons, golf courses, swimming pools, tennis courts, and luxury hote...
October ended optimistically on Wall Street, as both stocks and bonds posted gains. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 6.2% for the month, to 1877.81. Tires and rubber goods, a sector much in ...
Uncertainties about the economy, inflation and the direction of interest rates whipsawed stock and bond prices in September. After the Dow Jones industrial average hit a new high of 1919.71 during ...
Wall Street's bulls took July off. The result: a 6.7% drop in the Dow Jones industrial average from its high of 1909 to 1775 in just four weeks. Still, the Dow is up 31.7% in the past 12 months, an...
The manner in which the federal government represents its financial condition is woefully misleading. For all the debate about the exact costs of items in the federal budget and the very precise de...
The American economy is shifting from a high-speed hustle to a sedate waltz, and the effects will be felt worldwide. Last year's roaring growth produced something for everyone. The recovery remaine...
DESPITE RECURRING spasms of fear that it will skid into recession, the U.S. economy keeps trudging along. It will climb for the next year and a half, and though the pace will be remarkably languid,...
For ten or 15 years now, the academic world, the publishing world, and the world of economists have all been wondering about the fate of a book. Paul Samuelson's famous Economics, first published i...
AT SOME UNRECORDED moment earlier this year -- perhaps it was in February when the dollar reached a peak against foreign currencies, or maybe it was on April Fools' Day -- the U.S. became a debtor ...
Most everyone believes interest on the national debt is the one segment of the budget that is truly uncontrollable. But in fact the Treasury could cut its interest costs sharply with two simple tho...
POLITICIANS, pundits, and most economists have come to agree that the federal budget deficit is the paramount problem facing the U.S. By ''the deficit'' they no longer mean the difference between t...
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