In: Economics
Should the federal Government have a balanced budget (i.e. revenues = expenses), or is a deficit –OK? What are some of the positive reasons to run a deficit?
A government should run a deficit budget and not a balanced budget because a deficit budget can act as a method to increase the demand in the economy which can result in higher growth rate, increased employment etc.
But while making a deficit budget the government should be careful to not crowd out the private investment. If the economy is at the full employment level it is better to not have a big budget deficit ar it will not have any positive effect on the demand but will crowd out the private investment. In such a case, monetary policy works better.
Positive reasons to run a deficit are: