The US Daily Cash Deficit for 8/28/2013 was $10.6B bringing the August 2013 deficit through 28 days to $133B with two business days remaining. $12B of Social Security payments went out today…the last payment of the month, bringing August 2013 and 2014 as close to in sync as they have been all month. Revenues are back down YOY $2B under last year’s pace, but there is a good chance they will catch back up tomorrow as a few $B of excise taxes are likely to trickle in. Outlays are also down $10B, resulting in the deficit being down $9B(rounded) vs last year. Without a doubt…improvement is a good thing…we’ll take it…but this kind of meager improvement is substantially less than we have become accustomed to seeing.
So…with two days to go…expect a small deficit for Thursday, followed by a large Friday deficit…likely in the $30-$40B range as September payments get pulled into August by the timing of the weekend and the Labor Day Holiday. Thanks to the holiday, we won’t have our final August numbers until next Tuesday 9/3, but I don’t mind waiting.
