Is it money you have now plus money you know you’ll have, or are sure you’ll have?

Is it costs you have now plus costs you know you’ll have or are sure you’ll have?

What about expected costs which don’t in fact arise or are deferred? How to account for that ‘saving’?

What if you spend that ‘saving’, then persuade yourself that you can make a similar saving next month and spend that too?

Which time period ‘counts’? Is it OK to run up unaffordable debts in Period A, then simply roll them over into Period B and proclaim budget discipline?

Welcome to the dark world of ‘gaming the budget window’, a core feature of Obamacare. And a purposeful further step down the Road to Ruin?

As usual, Keith Hennessey explains.