Suppose a government has no debt and a balanced budget. Suddenly it decides to spend $10 billion while raising only $8 billion worth of taxes.
a) What will be the government's deficit?
b) If the government finances the deficit by issuing bonds, what amount of bonds will it issue?
c) At a 10 percent rate of interest, how much interest will the government pay each year?
d) If this same budget deficit occurs for a second year, what would the national debt become? And at a 10 percent rate of interest, now how much interest would have to be paid by the government each year?