Finance
- Report
The Role of the Department of Veterans Affairs in the Single-Family Mortgage Market
CBO describes VA’s mortgage guarantee program, provides estimates of the budgetary costs of the program, and compares those costs with expenditures for other federal guarantees.
- Working Paper
Fair-Value Budgeting: Practical Issues: Working Paper 2021-08
This paper explores the practical questions raised by fair-value budgeting: Which government activities would benefit from it? How might it be used? How can agencies estimate fair value without observing market prices for government risks?
- Report
Report on the Troubled Asset Relief Program—July 2021
Congress created the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in 2008 to stabilize financial markets. CBO estimates that the TARP’s net cost will be $31 billion—about what it reported in March 2020 and $1 billion lower than OMB’s latest estimate.
- Working Paper
Governmental Risk Taking Under Market Imperfections: Working Paper 2021-07
This paper explores the benefits and costs of governmental risk taking in formal models of market imperfections, in which the government serves as an intermediary between different stakeholders in its finances.
- Presentation
The Cost of the Federal Student Loan Programs and Repayment Plans
Presentation by Justin Humphrey, an analyst in CBO's Budget Analysis Division, to the Postsecondary National Policy Institute.
- Working Paper
Fair-Value Cost Estimation and Government Cash Flows: Working Paper 2021-05
Fair-value budget estimates reflect cash flows that are weighted by the value market participants would place on different scenarios instead of the average of their possible amounts.
- Report
Budgeting for Federal Investment
This report examines approaches to budgeting that would distinguish expenditures for investment in physical capital, education, and research and development from other expenditures.
- Report
Measuring the Cost of Government Activities That Involve Financial Risk
This report explains the details of two approaches to measuring the cost of government activities that involve financial risk, the qualitative differences between them, and their application to various activities and programs.
- Report
Options for Reducing the Deficit: 2021 to 2030
CBO periodically issues a compendium of policy options and their effects on the federal budget. This document provides estimates of the budgetary savings from 83 options that would decrease federal spending or increase federal revenues.
- Report
The Volume and Repayment of Federal Student Loans: 1995 to 2017
Between 1995 and 2017, the balance of outstanding federal student loan debt increased from $187 billion to $1.4 trillion (in 2017 dollars). CBO examines factors that contributed to that growth, including changes to student loan policies and how they affected borrowing and repayment.