Thomas Donlan devotes his latest Barron’s editorial commentary to key numbers associated with the federal government’s latest budget year.
Happy New Year? Cries of joy and good cheer did not ring out Wednesday, when the U.S. government closed out fiscal 2014 and opened the books on fiscal 2015. There was little to celebrate, except that it’s over.
The federal government ended fiscal 2014 owing $12.784 trillion to the public, about half of it to foreign governments. That’s nearly 74.5% of the year’s gross domestic product, double the level before the so-called Great Recession and a higher percentage than in any year since 1950. The Treasury also owes $5.039 trillion to other government accounts, notably for Social Security beneficiaries, putting total federal debt at $17.823 trillion.
The increase in total debt was $1.077 trillion; the increase in debt held by the public was $850 billion. The reported annual deficit, which ignores various increases in debt, was about $583 billion.
The good news last week was that there was no government shutdown for want of appropriations. Even though Congress has enacted exactly none of the 12 appropriations bills needed to operate normally, nothing bad happened because the lawmakers passed a continuing resolution to get them past the election without doing anything that could be controversial.
