When $90 Billion A Month in Deficits Feels Good... Right!

How do you celebrate a deficit of $90.53 billion for a single month?  That is what the market is supposed to do for the August deficit.  A report from the Treasury Department was expected to be -$95 billion per Dow Jones and expected to be the same -$95 billion by Bloomberg estimates.  This also compares to a deficit of about $103.56 billion from AUG-2009.

U.S. government revenue for August came was $164 billion, up from $145.53 billion a year earlier; Spending was $254.52 billion in August, up from $249.08 billion a year earlier.

To date for fiscal-2010, Uncle Sam is about $1.26 trillion shy of a balanced budget.  The most recent estimate we have seen from the White House for all of Fiscal-2010 is $1.47 trillion for 2010, above the prior year’s record deficit of $1.42 trillion.

Maybe there is a silver-lining in lower-than-expected deficits.  Higher taxes seem certain at this point, yet the spending is taking place as if money grows on trees.  Unfortunately, this is a drop in the bucket for the spending cuts that need to come down the road.

JON C. OGG