Here we are in Fiscal Year 2011 (as far as the US Government is concerned), and the Monthly Treasury Statement has been out for 2 1/2 hours now without a comment from me. This is a monthly release showing the highlights of what kind of stewards of the money we provide to the government to handle it's operating expenses (i.e. taxes). In October, we had a budget deficit of $140.4 billion dollars. Moving forward a month, the analysts were expecting the November budget deficit to be $130.0 billion. How did the government do with our money?
Not to put too fine a point on it, any reasonable financial planner would suggest that the government - if it were an individual coming in to his office to talk about his assets - talk to a credit councilor. Or consider bankruptcy.. In the month of November the US government had $145.96 billion in receipts and $299.355 billion in outlays for a total budget deficit (that month) of $150.394 billion dollars[1]. Year to date - and that means October and November - receipts have been $294.912 billion and outlays have been $585.738 billion, for a net of -$290.826 billion[2].
Coincidentally enough[3], Treasury prices ended down today. The 5-year note yield was up 0.102, the 10-year note yield was up 0.121, and the 30-year yield was up 0.038.
[1] To put that in perspective, it's something like having a monthly take-home salary of $4,000 and then putting $8200 on your credit card during Black Friday.
[2] Like [1] above, but doing it every month.
[3] Nah. Not really.
No comments:
Post a Comment