FISCAL: Wrong, As Usual

The U.S. closed its books for the fiscal year last week. The balance sheet was substantially better than the administration's usual gloomy prediction. As it often has in the past eleven years, the Administration has erred again on the pessimistic side.

The national debt, swelled by War Loan V, finally sailed over the breath-taking $200,000,000,000 mark. But President Roosevelt had estimated the deficit for the year at $55,000,000,000—some $5,000,000,000 bigger than it turned out to be. Treasury Secretary Morgenthau had underestimated by some $2,963,000,000 the actual Treasury receipts of $44,149,000,000. He had overestimated by some $2,207,000,000 actual expenditures of...