Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — The federal government began the new budget year with a record deficit of $237.2 billion, reflecting the billions of dollars the government has started to pay out to rescue the financial system.
The Treasury Department said Thursday that the deficit for the first month in the new budget year was the highest monthly imbalance on record. It was far bigger than analysts expected, more than four times larger than the October 2007 deficit of $56.8 billion.
The big surge reflected the government spending $115 billion to buy stock in the nation’s largest banks.
