fiscal policy

• Fiscal Policy is the use of government spending, taxation or borrowing to influence economic activity.
• government spending the total amount of money spent by the government in a given period of time
• direct tax a tax on income or wealth
• government revenue the source of finance for government spending
• indirect tax a tax on spending often defined as a tax on goods and services
• a budget surplus occurs when tax revenues exceed government spending
• the budget deficit occurs when government spending exceeds tax revenues
• The national debt is the accumulated value of all past budget deficits