The full-employment budget surplus suggested by the Council of Economic Advisers in the United States, for instance, attempts to adjust the simple measure of budget deficit or surplus in reaction to the effects of deviations from a level of unemployment that it regards as "normal" or "full".
Previous studies looked at summary measures of the budget situation, and likely included cases when strong economic performance caused lower deficits, not the other way around.
Walker has the most far-reaching budget veto powers of any governor, and some people had hoped that he might ameliorate some of the more draconian measures of his budget, which was approved by the Republican controlled legislature last week.
By the measures of household budgets, prospects for our children, preserving the most vital public services and dealing with our nation's debts, the Tory experiment has failed.
The set-piece green measure of the budget was the heavily trailed green investment bank with £2bn of capital, half from the public purse.
The sale will lead to a small reduction in Britain's £1.4tn national debt but will not affect the government's preferred measure of the budget deficit, public sector net borrowing.
Yet another read: The moral measure of this budget debate is not which party wins or which powerful interests prevail, but rather how those who are jobless, hungry, homeless or poor are treated.
Whatever the fine print proves to be, the bail-out, as a financial transaction, will not add to the usual measure of the budget deficit, but it will certainly push up public debt.
SUROWIECKI: The one point that Jake makes that sort of makes sense is that basically the one thing that Ryan does do here that Republicans have really not done is essentially really lay out how you might get to where the Republicans say they want to get, so you know, some measure of balanced budget, et cetera.
Government sources say that from the outset the chancellor has seen a cut in the 50p rate as the headline-grabbing measure of the budget, and views it as the simplest single step he can take to show his commitment to an enterprise economy.
