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Fiscal Policy
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Use of government taxes and spending to alter macroeconomic outcomes
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Deficit Spending
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Use of borrowed funds to finance government expenditures that exceed tax revenues
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Budget Deficit
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Amount by which government spending exceeds government revenue in a given time period
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Budget Surplus
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Excess of government revenues over government expenditures in a given time period
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Fiscal Year (FY)
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12-month period used for accounting purposes; begins October 1st for the federal government
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Discretionary Fiscal Spending
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Those elements of the federal budget not determined by past legislative or executive commitments
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Fiscal Restraint
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Tax hikes or spending cuts intended t reduce (shift) aggregate demand
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Fiscal Stimulus
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Tax cuts or spending hikes intended to increase (shift) aggregate demand
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Income Transfers
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Payments to individuals for which no current goods or services are exchanged, such as Social Security, welfare, unemployment benefits
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Automatic Stabilizer
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Federal expenditure or revenue item that automatically responds counter cyclically to changes in national income, like unemployment benefits and income taxes
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Cyclical Deficit
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That portion of the budget balance attributable to short-run changes in economic conditions
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Structural Deficit
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Federal revenues at full employment minus expenditures at full employment under prevailing fiscal policy
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Crowding Out
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Reduction in private sector borrowing (and spending) caused by increased government borrowing
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Opportunity Cost
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Most desired goods or services that are forgone in order to obtain something else
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Crowding In
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Increase in private sector borrowing (and spending) caused by decreased government borrowing
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National Debt
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Accumulated debt of the federal government
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Treasury Bonds
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Promissory notes (IOU's) issued by the U.S. Treasury
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Liability
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Obligation to make future payment; debt
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Asset
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Anything having exchange value in the marketplace; wealth
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Internal Debt
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U.S. government debt (Treasury bonds) held by U.S. households and institutions
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External Debt
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U.S. government debt (Treasury bonds) held by foreign households and institutions
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Refinancing
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Issuance of new debt in payment of debt issued earlier
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Debt Service
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Interest required to be paid each year on outstanding debt
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Optimal Mix of Output
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Most desirable combination of output attainable with existing resources, technology, and social values
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Deficit Ceiling
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Explicit, legislated limitation on the size of the budget deficit
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Deficit spending results whenever the government
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Finances current expenditures that exceed current tax revenues
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With greater deficit spending, ceteris paribus
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Any inflationary gap will become larger
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Budget surplus is
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Excess of government revenues over government expenditures in a given time period
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In order to reduce the U.S. debt
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Government should spend less than it collects in tax revenues
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Which of the following is an argument against balancing the federal budget?
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Doing so may prevent the government from pulling the economy out of recession
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Elements of the federal budget not determined by past legislative or executive commitments are
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Discretionary fiscal spending
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Much of each year's federal budget is considered "uncontrollable" because
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Most of the current revenues and expenditures are the result of decisions made in prior years
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Which of the following is not an automatic stabilizers?
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A. Progressive Income Taxes
B. Unemployment Benefits
C. Welfare Payments
D. Defense Spending
D.
B. Unemployment Benefits
C. Welfare Payments
D. Defense Spending
D.
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Automatic stabilizers tend to stabilize the level of economic activity because they
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Increase spending during recessions and reduce spending during inflationary periods
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Progressive income tax system is particularly effective as an automatic stabilizer because
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In a booming economy, taxpayers move into higher tax brackets, which restrains their spending
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Which of the following is most likely to reduce a federal budget surplus?
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Recession
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For the convenience of analyzing the part of the deficit that is sensitive to fiscal policy, the actual deficit is divided into which of the following components?
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Structural and cyclical deficits
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Structural deficit represents
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Federal reserves minus federal expenditures at full employment under current fiscal policy
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If the total budget deficit is $200 billion and the deficit at full employment is $120 billion, then the
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Cyclical deficit is $80 billion
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Opportunity cost of the debt is
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Less of an issue if the economy is below full employment since crowding out is less likely to occur
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Crowding in is the result of
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Falling interest rates
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National Debt is
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Accumulation of all annual deficit and surplus flow
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Fiscal agent of the U.S. government is the
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U.S. Treasury
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Policies designed to pay off the national debt will result in
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Smaller level of aggregate demand
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Interest payments on the national debt
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Are a redistribution of income from taxpayers to bondholders
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The "real burden" of the debt is directly related to
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Idea of opportunity cost
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Debt service
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Refers to the annual interest payments on the debt
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At the time it occurs, external financing of the debt allows the economy to
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Consume beyond the production possibilities curve