That's a view shared by many economists, including Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com, who testified during a congressional hearing that preserving jobless aid is more important than deficit reduction in the short term.
In other words, the proportion of accumulated deficits is more important than specific deficits.
Potentially more important than the deficit projections for this year and next is what the Congressional Budget Office says about long-term spending trends and economic growth.
@paulocoelho has a huge lead in the most-retweeted chart at #davos... twitter.com/graemewearden/… January 24 , 20132.30pm GMT Finally, Osborne is asked what is more important, growth or deficit reduction.
More important, the mounting deficits destroy confidence by sending the message that the American government is dysfunctional.
The third quarter GDP report will surely be cited in German arguments that labor market reforms are even more important than cutting deficits.
Most strikingly, when asked whether it was more important to cut the deficit or create jobs, 63% of tea party supporters opted to cut the deficit first.
But, as ever, money comes up trumps when weighing up what's more important: paying down the deficit, or stopping young girls being raped, enslaved and beaten regularly.
Economists say that a nation's overall trade balance is more important than any single deficit or surplus with an individual country.
Ironically, one of the more amusing aspects of this particular issue is the sight of Republicans such as Mike Pence and Eric Cantor arguing that job creation is more important to Americans than deficit reduction (hence, we should extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, even as their party fought vociferously against extending unemployment insurance benefits for the past several months).
