It disregards the fact that in the last year of the economic cycle, which according to the Treasury runs from 1999-2000 to 2005-06, there will be a surplus of only £2 billion on the current budget.Even that wafer-thin surplus is built on aggressively optimistic forecasts for growth.
At the same time, there will be a surplus of up to 95 million low-skill workers globally, according to the study, conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute.
China's skewed birth ratio (118 boys to every 100 girls) means that there will be a surplus of about 24m bachelors by 2020.
Deficit reduction is still the chancellor's prime purpose: admitting there will be no surplus in 2020 was no more than stating the blindingly obvious, as Osborne missed every target himself.
Although China's skewed birth rate means there will be a surplus of about 24 million men in China by 2020, the majority of these bachelors will live in rural areas.
Mr. Leinberger cites the work of Arthur C. Nelson, the director of Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute, who has predicted that, by 2025, there will be a surplus of 22 million large-lot homes (those built on at least one-sixth of an acre).
Don't worry about being new to the game, there will be a surplus of medics healing up everyone they see, trying to get the new achievements.
Now, for what it's worth, the OBR points out that on these forecasts, there will be a surplus on the "cyclically-adjusted current budget of 1.6% of GDP in 2018-19 whith, it says, implies "significant headroom against the fiscal mandate".
Over the next decade there will be a small surplus of $665 billion compared with the forecast surplus of $5.6 trillion that his administation inherited.
