September 2014

  • Loan guarantees made in the FHA's single-family mortgage program between 1992 and 2013 are now projected to generate small costs over their lifetimes rather than the significant savings that were originally recorded in the federal budget.

  • Last week Director Doug Elmendorf spoke at Macroeconomic Advisers’ Washington Policy Seminar and at Cornell University.

  • CBO is excited to announce the launch of its YouTube channel! We will post videos of Congressional testimonies, press briefings, and other events involving CBO.

  • The federal government ran a budget deficit of $589 billion for the first 11 months of fiscal year 2014, CBO estimates—$166 billion less than the shortfall recorded over the same period last year.

  • CBO projects that interest payments on the federal debt will more than triple under current law over the next decade. What accounts for that large increase?

  • Conditions in the labor market have improved notably in recent quarters, but a significant amount of slack in the economy remains. CBO projects that ongoing gains in employment over the next few years will largely eliminate that slack.