1. U.S. Budget

2. What is MONEY? Most of the money you make and spend in your lifetime you won’t see. It used to be a trade and barter system. Then precious metals or other valuable items. Then gold/silver backed paper money. Now…….. ▫It is valuable because we (U.S. Gov) says so. With the intro of credit, interest, and supply & demand money can be created from nothing. This changed our world. ▫Credit: loans. ▫Interest: bank accounts, bonds, treasury notes. ▫Supply & Demand: stock market, commodities.

3. Budget How does the US decide how to spend its money? President and Congress present budgets and then negotiate/compromise. For 2016 our budget will be around $4 trillion. What do we spend it on?

5. Deficit If we spend more than we have. How can we do this? ▫Issue credit. ▫Take loans. ▫Borrow from ourselves. This is actually a normal process. Is it a problem? Why do we do this? ▫We want low taxes ▫We want benefits

7. Debt We owe a lot of money, about $18 trillion. This again is a normal process of the budget. How much is too much? Who do we owe money to?