A budget deficit is a state of the state treasury when revenues (even taking into account borrowed money) are not enough to finance all necessary expenses.
The budget deficit is the excess of total government spending over the amount of revenue received. In the opposite situation, they talk about a budget surplus.
In itself, the deficit is not a problem, but rather a reflection of the economic processes taking place in the country. It is much more important what exactly causes it and what methods are used to cover it. The uniqueness of the state budget lies in the scale of its impact on the economy. Its ability to distribute cash flows is many times higher than that of any business entity.
Structure of income and expenses
The state budget is a document consisting of two parts. Revenue - reflects the flow of taxes, profits of state-owned enterprises, and dividends from shares into the treasury. Expenditure (budget list) - determines the directions for using money to finance the tasks and functions of the state (Fig. 1). If the revenue side is predominantly influenced by the economic situation and tax policy, then the structure of expenses changes depending on current needs, and depends more on the developing domestic and global socio-political situation.
Causes of deficiency
Federal budget deficits arise for various reasons:
- as a result of a sharp or sudden increase in military spending;
- reduction in tax revenues in the revenue sector during an economic downturn;
- when expanding expenditure items and increasing funding for them;
- due to investments in large projects (construction of the cosmodrome, Kerch Bridge);
- due to planning errors, ineffective tax policy, corruption.
It is not only a “coincidence of circumstances” that leads to it, but also government policy. The government of any country always faces a choice. What should be a priority at the moment: accumulation or consumption; economic growth or social justice. With the help of the budget, national income is distributed, the structure of consumption changes, and the rate of economic growth is stimulated or restrained.
Example. Consider the current budget deficit in Russia. It was last recorded with a surplus in 2011. In 2012, there was a negative balance of 0.3%. Over the next two years, it increased almost 10 times: in 2013 - 2.5%, in 2014 - 2.3%. On the one hand, this situation is due to a fall in oil prices and a decrease in income, and on the other hand, an increase in financing for individual items (Fig. 2). In just 3 years, the total increase in spending was more than 35%, and the lion's share of it falls on the national economy, defense and security.
Deficit financing
Regardless of the nature, the deficit must be financed, for which different methods and their combinations are used. They are usually divided into two groups.
1 Non-emission methods of covering the negative balance: internal and external loans.
Main instruments: placement of government debt (bonds, other securities), bank lending, loans from international financial organizations. Each type of borrowing has a different impact on the economy and causes different consequences.
Internal debts lead to an increase in the demand for money, which entails an increase in interest rates, that is, an increase in the cost of loans, which reduces the economic activity of enterprises. The second negative effect: a threat to the stability of the national currency and the stability of the Central Bank, which could lead to default. Domestic borrowing has both financial and political limits.
External borrowing has more advantages. It does not cause the withdrawal of funds from the national economy, but on the contrary: it increases the financial capabilities of the country. Funds are used to increase government orders, to pay for foreign currency purchases, to repay external loans and pay interest on them. As a result of the sanctions war, world banks do not give money to Russia, and it borrows more and more on the domestic market (Fig. 1).
2 Inflationary methods (issue of banknotes).
Such financing involves the additional issue of paper money. The budget deficit, in simple words, is covered by “turning on the printing press.” What consequences does this lead to? The issue saves from the growth of external debt and the costs of servicing it, does not reduce the investment flow into the economy - it even stimulates aggregate demand. But it unwinds the inflationary “spiral”, so it is permissible up to a certain threshold. If it is exceeded, the situation gets out of control.
Is there a need for a deficit?
A balanced budget policy means equality of revenue and expenditure parts. This is desirable, but practically impossible in real conditions. If the price of balance is an overly strict economy regime (the principle of “stretching your legs according to clothes”), then this actually means a refusal of economic development.
In addition, the increase in defense spending leads to the infringement of other areas, and in terms of “social services” we are only in 73rd place in the world. The desire to annually adopt a deficit-free budget, according to economists, can lead to two consequences: higher taxes and a lower quality of life. To prevent this from happening, a deficit is created under current conditions. A promising direction for covering it is a debt policy to reduce external debt and replace it with internal loans.
All countries have a budget deficit and cover it through loans. Moreover, their volume exceeds the size of the national GDP. So, in 2011 we had a budget surplus, while in other countries the balance was negative: America - 14.3%; England - 8.4%, Germany - 2.3%; France - 6.0%; Japan - 10.0% of GDP. In Russia, this figure reached 2.6% in 2015, and we are still far from reaching the critical indicator (60%).
Scarcity is a market situation when the quantity of a good produced is less than the quantity that people are willing to buy. Deficiency or excess can be natural phenomena only for a short period of time.
Shortages of goods can arise due to inflation, when the prices of raw materials and other goods necessary for production increase greatly. In this case, the quantity of goods produced is reduced by the manufacturer.
This situation can also arise due to improper planning. The number of units produced is determined by the market that is willing to buy. Bursts of activity can be caused by the time of year, fashion and other factors.
A shortage may arise due to a decrease in imports of goods into the country. Reduced purchasing budgets, violation of trade agreements, unforeseen circumstances, etc. It is impossible to consider the economy of any individual modern country, because it is directly related to the global situation. And if trouble happens in any important country, it affects everyone.
Where does the excess come from and what are its consequences?
Over the past 10 years, Russia has not had a shortage on any significant scale. Excess of goods has no less significant consequences. But, it would seem, what could be bad when there are a lot of goods?
There can be two reasons for the excess of goods in the market and warehouses. The first and most terrible thing was when it grew rapidly, and then there was a decline. As a result, manufacturers do not have time to adjust to the new volume of work, and more goods are produced. Depending on the size of the downturn, there could be job losses, layoffs, and even the closure of entire businesses.
The second option for the emergence of a surplus is the disappearance of the possibility of exporting products in the same volume as before. The reasons may be the same as with deficiency.
The task of economists is to anticipate the occurrence of such situations in the market and influence it. The advantage of a mixed economy over a market economy is precisely that the state can intervene in certain areas. John Keynes also created a theory, the essence of which is that the market cannot regulate itself.
Today, the gradual introduction of the role of the state in economic processes and the export of raw materials, which smooths out rough edges, helps to avoid such problems in Russia.
Some people will be skeptical when they hear the term energy deficiency. They perceive any deficit as a temporary phenomenon. Wasted energy at a night disco, so what? I'll get some sleep and be back to normal. Such frivolity is in vain, all problems begin invisibly, and this issue is extremely serious, since from a lack of energy the body can easily go haywire and suddenly become uncontrollable. Energy must be treasured. We need it, strive for it, when we lose it, we try to return it. Everything that affects our health acts directly through energy. Every function of the body will eventually stop if the body does not receive enough energy to maintain it. As American doctor Mark Hyman says, when we lose the ability to generate at least some energy, it is called death. It is precisely because of energy deficiency that rupture of the aorta or cerebral vessels, sudden cardiac arrest, etc. are possible. If you do not try to resist the energy deficiency, it means voluntarily preparing the ground for troubles that the body can no longer cope with. Lack of energy leads to cancer, heart dystrophy, and rapid aging. American scientist Mark Hyman in the book “Brain. Feedback" claims that autism, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, depression, bipolar disorders, and brain aging are associated with energy deficiency. Do not think that these are problems of the elderly: many of these misfortunes can await even an outwardly young and healthy person. Energy deficiency is usually manifested by a feeling of exhaustion and loss of strength, fatigue, irritation, deterioration of memory, decreased accuracy, consistency and rhythm of movements, constant drowsiness, indifference, and decreased immunity.
Due to lack of energy, people do many wrong things and make fatal decisions. I would like to give a few examples, because examples from life are always impressive. Proof of this can be the biographies of completely extraordinary people, such as US President John Kennedy or Michael Jackson. These were smart and strong-willed people; no one would say that they suffered from idleness. Physical and mental overload led to a chronic lack of energy in their bodies. Psychologists call this professional burnout. As biographers describe, President John Kennedy was forced to take amphetamines, and Michael Jackson died from drugs that helped him fight mind-blowing fatigue. A huge number of people are secretly or openly in a similar situation. Many of them are creative and extraordinary individuals. To understand the motives for such strange behavior, you need to give another example from the documentary book by neurophysiologist Daniel Amen, “Change your brain, change your life.” Rob, a brilliant geneticist. In recent years, he was constantly tired and could not concentrate. This was reflected in his work. For five years, Rob had been drinking alcohol in large quantities, and to cope with fatigue, he also used cocaine and methamphetamine. When Daniel Amen asked why he was doing this, since he could lose everything in life, Rob, without any doubt, a smart man, replied: “What will I do without them? Without them, I will still lose everything. I feel terrible without them." This example shows what actions a lack of energy pushes people to, forcing them to look for effective methods of compensating for it. Usually at such a moment in life a black “well-wisher” appears, offering an effective means of compensation. And a person can fall for the deadly bait. Energy shortages force people to urgently take action, because in a market economy it is easier to remain competitive for an energetic, healthy, attractive and communicative person. After all, how happy you are, how productive you feel, and how you build your relationships with others depends on your energy potential. Without sufficient energy reserves, it is difficult to count on success in any area of life, no matter how hard you try. It sounds strange, but it is not easy for a civilized person with average demands to survive. Modern society is pragmatic and cruel. Indifference and the desire to get rich quickly have become the main features of our time. Just stumble, just break in this life - that’s all! A tired, sick, weak-looking person evokes sympathy, but no one needs him. Everyone is busy with their own problems. In most cases, participation and sympathy today are just a form of politeness. Constant fatigue leads to a distortion of the emotional state, so not only employers, but also the opposite sex are not interested in people with a lack of energy. Weak people, always dependent on circumstances, turn into a burden for others, which drags them into trouble, and if possible they try to avoid communicating with such people. Finding yourself in practical isolation, without support, it is rare that someone does not give up both physically and mentally. A person who constantly asks everyone for everything, depends on everyone and cannot satisfy his needs himself, is gradually forced to find himself on the sidelines of life. Energy shortage is a disaster!
But the most amazing thing is that there are no problems here! There is no disaster here! Everything here is far-fetched. Energy deficiency can be eliminated simply and forever if plant adaptogens are introduced into the diet. People experience amazing sensations when they manage to break out of a state of energy deficiency. Here are quotes from Mark Hyman's book “The Brain. Feedback":
-I felt like a different person, and I had so much energy! I am happy and will be grateful to you all my life. Jackie Tepper, Stamford, Connecticut.
She became normal again, stopped hitting and throwing herself in rage at her sister. Lisa R. (mother), Medford, New York.
I didn't even realize how bad I was until I felt better. Kaki Martin, Cambridge, MA.
People’s daily efforts to be beautiful, strong, energetic, and to look younger are natural desires: their career, income, and personal life depend on it. For young people, adaptogens provide a chance to strengthen the body's energy capabilities to such an extent that they can develop the potential for success in any area of life to previously unimaginable heights. 
For those who already consider themselves to have lived, there is also a real way to start life again, to return to the level of health that you had, say, in your early youth, or even achieve better. Thanks to adaptogens, everyone can really raise their vitality and creativity to a different energy level without exhausting training and other technologies, and push back the approaching old age indefinitely. If everything is in order with a person’s psyche, such a person should have a desire to live long and strive to take care of his health. Because a strong and healthy person is little dependent on circumstances and rarely asks for help. His life and worldview are different from the lives of ordinary people. This is an independent person, he lives practically without restrictions and enjoys life. Natural adaptogens can effectively achieve this. Adaptogens are your key to success and independence.
Well, what are they, adaptogens? Who invented them, what fairy tale did they come from, who was the first to reveal them to people?
The collapse of the NEP and the introduction of a new organization of the economy. There was a shortage of many consumer goods, including food products, and from the end of 1928 a multi-unit system was re-introduced in cities. card system, that is, a normalized distribution across population groups. At the same time, the free commercial sale of these products at very high prices was maintained. This peak, as the official ideology claimed, gradually faded towards the end of the 1930s with the rise of the Stakhanov movement.
It is believed that the reason for this relaxation was a riot in the city of Vichuga, Ivanovo region, by workers of the United Manufactory named after. Shagova, factories named after. Krasin and the Krasny Profintern factory due to a sharp decrease in the rationing quota for bread distribution from April 1, 1932.
The first peak reached its apogee in the early 40s.
Second peak was caused by the Great Patriotic War and ended with the completion of the post-war economic recovery.
Third peak The commodity deficit in the USSR was caused by the consequences of economic reforms of the 60s (the collapse and curtailment of the “Kosygin reform”) and, subsequently, after some (associated with high oil prices) stabilization - during the period of Perestroika (especially in the last ones, 1989-1991- years), when, as a result of a sharp increase in the nominal monetary income of the population, almost all goods in any demand became scarce
In the intervals between these peaks, the commodity shortage continued to exist, but did not reach the introduction of rationing. The pre-war years were entirely marked by the Politburo's struggle with the massive influx of buyers into large industrial centers. Until the fall of 1939, the “commodity landing” in large cities was not of a food nature. Residents of villages and small towns traveled around the country in search of textiles, shoes, and clothing. In the autumn of 1939, queues for food began to grow. Moscow remained the center of gravity. The Moscow queues clearly had a multinational face, from which one could study the geography of the Soviet Union - according to the NKVD, in the late 1930s, Muscovites in Moscow queues made up no more than a third.
During 1938, the flow of nonresident buyers to Moscow increased, and by the spring of 1939, the situation in Moscow resembled a natural disaster. The NKVD reported: “On the night of April 13-14, the total number of customers at the stores at the time of their opening was 30,000 people. On the night of April 16-17 - 43,800 people, etc.” Thousands of people stood outside every major department store.
A similar situation repeated itself later, in the 80s (“sausage trains” and other phenomena).
The shortage could arise not only due to underproduction, but also due to the disorganization of the supply and distribution of goods, and local sloppiness:
Warehouses are overflowing with goods.The main freight station of Leningrad and the client warehouse stations are filled with consumer goods, which are not systematically exported, since the Oktyabrskaya road does not supply wagons. Huge deposits of goods were formed that were intended to be sent to the villages. According to the report, as of November 30, there were over 800 wagons of consumer goods on the Oktyabrskaya Road. The road department does not have more recent data. However, according to the head of the cargo section of the road, Margolin, the situation today has not changed significantly.
The warehouses of Soyuztrans (the main shipper of Leningrad consumer goods) are so overcrowded that they are not able to accept goods coming from factories. Dozens of wagons of notebooks, soap, ready-made clothes, shoes, matches and cigarettes are waiting to be sent.
In conditions of interruptions in the supply of certain goods, the population began to stock up, increasing purchases and thereby aggravating the situation with shortages.
In the early 60s, there was a shortage of bread and some other types of food, one of the reasons for which was drought. In 1963, the issue of introducing card distribution was discussed, and in many regions it was actually introduced - flour and cereals were issued to residents of settlements according to lists once a month in strictly limited quantities. The deficit was largely eliminated thanks to an increase in retail prices, in particular for bread products, meat and butter.
There is an opinion that the depth of the commodity shortage in the early 60s is clearly characterized by a document on material incentives for the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin: along with his own monetary reward in the amount of 15,000 rubles, he and his relatives were given dozens of items of clothing and other goods.
The level of commodity shortages in different areas of the USSR varied greatly. Each populated area of the USSR was assigned to one of four “supply categories” ( special, first, second And third). The special and first lists had advantages in supply, which included Moscow, Leningrad, large industrial centers, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and resorts of union significance. Residents of these cities were supposed to receive bread, flour, cereals, meat, fish, butter, sugar, tea, eggs from centralized supply funds first and at higher rates. Consumers of the special and first lists accounted for only 40% of those supplied, but received the lion's share of government supplies - 70-80% of funds entering trade. The population of the RSFSR living in settlements that were not included in the special or first lists was the worst supplied with food and industrial goods.
The second and third supply lists included small and non-industrial cities. They were supposed to receive only bread, sugar, cereals and tea from central funds, and at lower rates than residents of cities on the special and first lists. The rest of the products had to be taken from local resources.
At the moment, we have centralized supplies for 40.3 million people, including their families. Special list - 10.3 million people, first list - 11.8 million people, second list - 9.6 million, third list - 8.6 million.
The shortage of raw materials and components in industry (and their distribution to manufacturers according to orders) led to the emergence of a special caste of suppliers (“pushers”) who, with the help of connections and gifts, can get (knock out, push) “literally everything” from suppliers. These were highly valued by enterprise directors.
The shortage affected not only food, but also industrial goods. There was also a distribution system here. Many scarce items (including cars) were raffled off in state lotteries.
Shortage of passenger cars
A striking example of the chronically scarce Soviet consumer market was the strictly funded market for “private” (automotive) passenger cars. Thus, the production of passenger cars in the USSR (see Automotive Industry of the USSR), although it increased 5.5 times from 1965 to 1975. (from 0.22 to 1.2 million, respectively), the consumer market was not saturated at all, and as sales grew, it only led to the first wave of mass motorization. Moreover, for example, in the second half of the 1960s, up to 55% of the annual production of Moskvich cars, which barely reached 100 thousand per year, despite the presence of significant unsatisfied consumer demand, was exported. Later, in the 70-80s, up to 0.4 million passenger cars were exported from the USSR, 3/4 of which were Lada cars produced by AvtoVAZ. At the same time, the production of passenger cars, which reached a peak of 1.3 million cars per year in 1982, remained at approximately the same level (and even decreased somewhat at the end of perestroika) until the collapse of the USSR in 1991 and, of course, after.
In addition to the “listed” car queues at enterprises, which had varying durations from 2-3 to 10-12 years (depending on the category and status of the enterprise or institution, for example, military-industrial complex enterprises and party bodies had priority), fellow citizens could quickly enough (within 1 ,5-3 years) and legally save up for a car by becoming foreign workers, that is, working or serving abroad on various construction and other projects carried out in 1960-1990. USSR, but only on the condition that they then purchase a Soviet passenger car directly in the USSR through the Vneshposyltorg store system for Vneshtorgbank checks.
At least 10% of passenger cars produced in the USSR (including at least 60% of prestigious Volga cars and almost 100% of UAZ SUVs) went to state organizations and could then be purchased by citizens only in heavily used or emergency condition (after or instead of major repairs ), and even then only as an exception. And the nomenclature “Seagulls” and “ZILs” were not sold to “private owners” in principle (after being written off, they were disposed of). Therefore, a permanent shortage of passenger cars persisted throughout almost the entire post-war period of the existence of the USSR.
The only real relatively mass “market” means of buying a passenger car in the USSR remained the black market, where the price of various models ranged from 1.2 to 2 times the state price (even single copies of foreign cars, including old trophy ones, were on sale), and the premium for the most prestigious Volga reached 2.5 denominations, almost regardless of the mileage. In addition, in different historical periods (under different general secretaries) authorities (sometimes of very local rank) imposed various “social” restrictions on the sale of used cars - for example, the right to inherit a car as property was regularly violated and relatives of the deceased owner of the car were forced to sell it, that is actually repurchase through a consignment store (sometimes this was also prohibited) [ ], a new car also could not be sold earlier than after 2 or 3 years of ownership, and ordinary workers who already had a car, regardless of how long it had been in use, were not put on a waiting list for a new car in many organizations.
It should also be noted that in the period 1983-1985. (before the anti-alcohol campaign was implemented), the shortage of passenger cars became assorted: due to the decline in the prestige of some brands (such as Moskvich, Izh, ZAZ and LuAZ), due to low quality and inflated state prices, they were sold in many cities without a queue and even (but in very rare cases) on credit. And for certain models, like the ZAZ-968M Zaporozhets and the VAZ-2121 Niva, the price had to be reduced, since it turned out to be higher than the effective demand of the social strata of consumers oriented towards these models (villagers and pensioners).
All this led to the decision to start purchasing feed grains abroad, mainly in North America.
Lack of information
Book shortagePossession of good books in beautiful covers in conditions of scarcity also became a measure of prestige and well-being. This was clearly evidenced (and partly promoted) by the fact that in the most popular television game What? Where? When? , from the moment of its appearance in September 1975 until the death of the USSR, books invariably remained as a prize.
Queues
To purchase a scarce product, which was often put on the counter suddenly, as they said, “thrown away,” it was necessary to stand in line, or even several lines, for each type of product separately. Many people always carried a special string bag with them for such an occasion (“just in case”), since there were no plastic bags on sale in grocery stores and these bags themselves were a scarce commodity.
The queues for scarce goods could reach enormous lengths. In 1940, when it was no longer possible to buy anything in the provinces, queues in Moscow reached 8 thousand people, despite restrictions on entry into the capital. Something similar was observed at the end of the USSR.
People invented many ways to avoid days of exhausting standing in lines, which also did not guarantee the purchase of goods. For example, it was possible to break into a store using brute physical force. Places in the queue were sold (the price depended on how close to the head of the queue the place was, how scarce the goods were) - there was even a saying “ If you stand in line well, you don’t have to work“, you could also hire a “stander” (tramitador) who would stand in line for you.
Durable goods were also “signed up on a waiting list.” There were certain days for registration, and in order to get on the list, people lined up in the evening, working shifts with relatives overnight, so that in the morning, by the time the registration began, they would be as close as possible to the top of the list. Moreover, the entry was of an incomprehensible nature: in addition to checking in at the store, you also had to come and check in with strange, enterprising people on certain days, so as not to be crossed off the list. In order not to forget the three- or four-digit number during roll call, it was written down with a ballpoint pen or crayon on the palm of the hand.
Card and coupon systems
When the deficit becomes constant and grows, the state is forced to introduce rationing for the distribution of goods. In the USSR, one of the options for such rationing was the card system or “coupons”. In addition to the introduction of this system in war and post-war times, in the USSR such a distribution also existed in peacetime, in particular in the late 1980s, in certain regions for some products (animal oil, meat, meat products) - since the early 1980s (for example , in Vologda since 1982, Sverdlovsk - since 1983, in Novosibirsk cards for factory workers " Invitation to a grocery store to purchase 300 grams of sausage per month for an employee" - since the late 1970s) and even earlier.
Parallel retail trading systems
In addition, there was a whole system of distribution of non-food goods through the place of work - for example, this is how many purchased cars allocated to the labor collective of a specific “distribution” organization. Naturally, the distribution was uneven - for example, a team at a defense research institute could be allocated several dozen cars a year, while another organization might not receive a single one at the same time. For a relatively objective distribution of cars at the enterprises to which they were allocated, public commissions were organized, which carried out the distribution according to the order of inclusion in the list, similar to the distribution of apartments. There was also a list of people out of turn who had state-defined benefits for receiving cars.
In 1987-1989, in conditions of growing shortages, the authorities tried to organize an even distribution of products and industrial goods through the so-called. “pre-orders” at the place of work. Thus, in Leningrad, the turnover of outbound trade in manufactured goods, which included this sales method, increased in 1989 by more than 6 times compared to 1988 and amounted to 7% of the total turnover of industrial trade in the city.
It was also possible to purchase goods at the so-called “collective farm markets” that operated in large cities, but at prices significantly, many times higher than the state prices.
Non-state trade
An exception to the system of commodity shortages was the “free market,” elements of which were preserved in the USSR in the form of “collective farm markets” and “thrift stores.” Trade (sale/resale) of goods from speculators and from people who came “from abroad” (that is, from abroad) also took place in semi-official markets (often located on the territory of “collective farms”) - “flea market”, “trushka” - where trading took place “by hand”, on weekends.
Existing markets or so-called “collective farm markets” operating in large cities could offer a wider range of products, but their prices were many times higher than subsidized ones, but also scarce state ones (which for some types of food products could be lower than purchase prices for manufacturers).
However, the bulk of consumption (up to 98%) fell precisely on the state trading system, and prices on the “collective farm markets” and on the “black” (illegal) market were traditionally perceived by the population as greatly inflated (compared to those established by the state, which, as later it turned out that they were underestimated by about 10 times).
According to a survey of the 1980s, in Moscow and Leningrad state trade, where prices were the lowest, was used by 97% of buyers, in the capitals of the union republics - 79%. Here, 17% of buyers used the services of consumer cooperation, 10% bought products at collective farm markets (the amount is not necessarily equal to 100%, since some of the respondents used different sources of supply). In regional centers, only 36% of respondents had the opportunity to buy meat and sausage in state stores, 37% used consumer cooperative stores. 35% bought at markets. The higher the level of average per capita total income of a family, the more meat products it bought in state stores (most often in closed ones - at institutions, military-industrial complex enterprises, etc.) at subsidized prices.
For example, the mechanism for artificially creating a shortage of spare parts for passenger cars, as described in the press of those years, looked like this.
After the creation of a network of “branded” service stations (STO) in the USSR in the 70s, the bulk of spare parts began to be supplied to them. Specialty stores received only a small percentage of spare parts, which were immediately sold out. Moreover, their total output for each period of time was calculated taking into account the natural wear and tear of the vehicle fleet, without a large reserve. However, instead of the expected quick and convenient repair for the car enthusiast, in practice this led to an unexpected effect in the form of a shortage of spare parts for passenger cars that became increasingly worse over time.
The point was that the reserves of spare parts created in the service station warehouses were concealed by the workers. The warehouses of the bulk of the service stations that were well supplied with spare parts were literally bursting - sudden checks of the OBHSS revealed the presence of tens and hundreds of parts of each item, including the most “scarce” ones - while citizens who applied to the service station received constant refusals from dispatchers under the pretext of a lack of spare parts. Naturally, this would have been impossible without the knowledge of authorities at various levels, although proving the existence of a criminal conspiracy was usually extremely difficult.
The next step of the criminal enterprise was to involve the most “accommodating” car enthusiasts in a scheme for the illegal sale of spare parts from a warehouse “under the counter”, carried out “on the spot” by the service station employees themselves or their proxies. At the same time, in addition to the spare part, the “client” also paid for the “labor” of the “intermediaries”, as well as fictitious work on its installation, due to which the service station “fulfilled” the plan assigned to it, although in reality there may not have been any or practically any work during the reporting period produce. As a result, in addition to multiple overpayments, the car owner was also forced to install the spare part on his car himself. In the situation thus created, he was nevertheless satisfied with this.
Trade in stolen spare parts was also carried out in spontaneous markets, usually located near major highways. You could always buy spare parts there, in any quantity and assortment, but with a huge overpayment. For example, in the mid-80s, the state price for a set of crankshaft liners for a Zhiguli was quite affordable 7 rubles. 20 kopecks, but they were sold “under the counter” for 140 rubles, which is comparable to the average monthly salary in those years.
Other aspects
The commodity shortage caused a mirror change in attitudes towards exports and imports. Export was perceived as the removal from the country of goods it needed, perhaps in short supply, and imports were perceived as an effective way to fill the commodity deficit. On the other hand, imports meant the consumption of such a useful resource as foreign currencies.
Imported goods (in small quantities entering the USSR market) were perceived by the population as “prestigious” - after all, they appeared in a different economy, where manufacturers were forced, due to competition, to take care of high functionality, reliability and attractive design of goods. Due to the closed market and the state monopoly on foreign trade, most of the world's major brands were practically unknown in the USSR, since the state, for various reasons, did not import them. Imported goods, which were nevertheless purchased by state foreign trade organizations, were always of fairly high quality, since they were intended primarily for consumption of the product. The result was the formation in the minds of the population of the idea of all imported goods as high-class products (cheap, including “Chinese” imports were virtually absent at that time, since a significant economic rise in China began later, and cheap goods from there were under counterfeit trademarks ( e.g. Pawasonic instead of Panasonic) have not yet penetrated the market en masse).
The illegal trade in imported goods was carried out by the so-called. black marketeers, in collaboration with currency traders.
The total deficit during this period was, according to one version, caused primarily by a sharp increase in nominal incomes and savings of the population during this period (as a consequence, first of all, of the actions of the “Law on Enterprises of the USSR” and the “Law on Cooperation in the USSR”, through various mechanisms allowing for the “cash out” of funds from the accounts of enterprises, and the emergence of a wide layer of “cooperators”, whose incomes, in principle, were not regulated by any norms) while maintaining state prices administratively set for almost all goods well below the equilibrium level; Boris Yeltsin's supporters, on the eve of price liberalization on January 2, 1992, determined that prices were reduced by an average of three times; however, during the reform it turned out that prices were reduced by at least ten times. That is, based on this, we can come to the conclusion that the state subsidized essential goods for the population ten times - 9/10 of the price of the goods was paid by the state, 1/10 by the consumer. In practice, after the “liberalization” of prices, they increased thousands of times, taking into account inflation.
Scientific research into the commodity deficit in the USSR is difficult due to the fact that until the last years of the existence of the USSR, such studies were not carried out for political reasons, and foreign ones were poorly known. Such studies became known only starting from 1989-1990, and starting from 1992, the subject of the study itself disappeared. At the same time, in a number of countries in Eastern Europe, which to varying degrees faced the same problems, similar studies were sometimes carried out, although due to political considerations they were usually not widely known. An example is the book “Scarcity” by the Hungarian author János Kornai, published in the USSR in 1990.
In media and popular culture
The permanent shortage of goods is a source of inspiration and a critical goal for many Soviet humorists and satirists: A. Raikin (“ Syushay, got the difst, vkyus - sptsfssky"), M. Zhvanetsky (" You never know what will disappear tomorrow..."), Khazanov ("Artificial deficit" - " white poison… black poison…") and etc.
1940s -1950s
From 1941 to 1947, in the USSR, due to the difficult economic situation associated with the war, a card distribution system was introduced. After its abolition and the simultaneous implementation of confiscatory monetary reform, low incomes of the population and high prices in relation to them, in conditions of low needs of the overwhelming majority of the Soviet people, restrained the emergence of a wide shortage of products and goods.
At the same time, there remained an acute shortage of essential goods. A critical situation has developed in pharmacies with most drugs and medicines, including the most necessary ones. In December 1947, the chairman of the Party Control Commission under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Matvey Shkiryatov, sent a note to Politburo member Andrei Zhdanov, which said: “During the war, I had to check the work of pharmacies in terms of supplying the population with medicines, but the situation is not as it is now.” was".
During the war years, even at defense enterprises supplied primarily through the labor supply system, there was not enough food to fully provide the food rationed by the rationing system for workers, employees and their families. For example, at the Ufa plant No. 26 NKAP (now UMPO), the food cards of family members of workers at this plant were not sold for 6-7 months.
A difficult situation with essential goods, food and livestock feed developed on collective farms towards the end of Stalin’s rule. Agricultural procurement plans that did not reflect reality, the carelessness of managers and the lack of incentives for collective farmers to work ruined the villages and led to an outflow of the population to the cities.
At the end of the 50s, a meat and dairy shortage provoked a short-sighted decision by the country's leadership, led by Khrushchev, to eradicate private farms. In 1959, residents of cities and workers' settlements were prohibited from keeping livestock; the state bought the personal livestock of collective farmers. Collective farmers began mass slaughter of livestock. This policy led to a reduction in the number of livestock and poultry. The situation was aggravated by the criminal diligence of the leaders of some regions (see the Ryazan miracle), striving at any cost to fulfill Khrushchev’s instructions in three years triple meat production in the country.
shortage of raw materials, products or finances compared to the planned or required level, distinguish between budget deficit, commodity deficit, as well as trade and payments balance deficits
Types of deficit, causes of deficit, pros and cons of deficit, methods of financing the deficit, types of financing the deficit, deficit in the USSR
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Deficiency is the definition
Deficiency is lack of products or, as well as finances or in comparison with the plan or minimum level, among ordinary people there is a more developed understanding of commodity or food shortages
Deficiency is shortage of something - products, raw materials, finances, while in case of a shortage of products or raw materials it exceeds the current supply
Shortage- This term meaning lack, insufficiency in something
Deficiency is insufficiency of funds and resources in comparison with the previously planned, planned or required level. In relation to a deficit, they call it an excess over
Shortage - This an economic term that describes the lack of something in free circulation
Deficiency -This not enough of something. In economics, the concept of budget deficit is used, meaning that spending exceeds
Shortage in history
Deficiencies are common throughout human history. There is always something missing in the world.
The Moscow uprising, the “Salt Riot” during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich (from the Romanov dynasty), one of the major urban uprisings of the mid-17th century, a mass uprising of the lower and middle strata of the townspeople, urban artisans, archers and courtyard servants.
Famine in Russia (1601-1603)
Boris's reign began successfully, but a series of disgraces gave rise to despondency, and soon a real catastrophe broke out. In 1601 there were long rains, and then early frosts struck and, according to a contemporary, “the strong scum killed all the labor of human affairs in the fields.” The following year, the harvest failed again. A famine began in the country and lasted three years.
There was a crop failure in the Russian Federation due to rains
Causes of hunger
Several different factors are cited as reasons. The initial stage of the famine was a severe crop failure in 1601, which, according to meteorologists, was the result of the eruption of the Huaynaputina volcano in Spain (February 19, 1600). This led to an accumulation of ash in the Earth's atmosphere and caused a storm, characterized by 10 weeks of heavy rain in the summer and early frosts in the fall.
On the other hand, historians and economists point out that in the 15th-17th centuries, almost all European countries experienced the late Middle Ages, caused by overpopulation, combined with the increasingly obvious inefficiency of the feudal economy.
Course of events
Because of hunger and crop failures, many landowners gave their peasants manumission (and many others, driving out their peasants - so as not to feed them - did not give them manumission - so that when the famine was over, they could return these peasants to themselves). Crowds of slaves were engaged in robbery and robbery on the roads.
The level of commodity shortages in different areas of the USSR varied greatly. Each settlement in the USSR was assigned to one of four “supply categories” (special, first, second and third). The special and first lists had advantages in supply, which included Moscow, Leningrad, large industrial centers, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and resorts of union significance.
In 1934, the shortage of raw materials and components in industry (and their distribution to manufacturers according to orders) led to the emergence of a special caste of suppliers (“pushers”), who, with the help of connections and gifts, could get (knock out, push) “literally everything” from suppliers. These were highly valued by enterprise directors.
The shortage affected not only food, but also industrial goods. There was also a distribution system here. Many scarce items (including) were played in state lotteries.
Types of Deficiency
There are several types of deficiency.
Commodity shortage
A shortage of a product is a symptom of demand for that product exceeding supply. Episodes of commodity shortages are possible in both planned and market economies.
However, in a market economy with floating prices, a trade deficit is considered a disequilibrium state, which is quickly corrected by the market by rising prices, increasing production volume and falling demand for goods.
On the other hand, a planned economy, combined with state price regulation, is deprived of this natural market correction mechanism, and therefore, in such an economy, cases of long-term (and even permanent) commodity shortages are possible.
The flip side of a trade deficit in a planned economy is the emergence of goods for which the regulatory authority sets inflated prices or inflated production quotas.
Such goods tend to accumulate in warehouses or on store shelves - overstocking. The coexistence of shortages and illiquid goods led in the USSR to the emergence of the “load” phenomenon, when a scarce product was allowed to be purchased only in conjunction with an illiquid one.
Budget deficit
Reasons for the formation of a budget deficit
The causes of a budget deficit can be:
Increase in government spending due to structural restructuring of the economy and the need for industrial development;
Types of sources of financing the budget deficit
To finance the budget deficit, various sources are used, which are divided into internal and external.
Internal sources of financing
Deficit financing from domestic sources includes:
An increase in market volumes caused by a budget deficit also stimulates the economy insofar as an increase in business profits causes producer optimism, which in turn promotes long-term investment (accelerator effect).
As a result, demand is revived, which in turn causes an increase in employment. But scarcity doesn't just stimulate demand. In addition, if the deficit is used to finance areas such as basic science, education or healthcare, then this also increases production volumes in the future. Thus, the budget deficit in certain cases may be an incentive to intensify economic activity.
The budgets of many states are in deficit. If a government strives to pass a deficit-free budget each year, it can exacerbate cyclical fluctuations in the economy by cutting important spending and raising taxes unnecessarily. Therefore, when regulating the deficit, it is important to take into account not only the current objectives of budget policy, but also its long-term priorities.
Trade deficit
However, due to insufficient export industries, these countries are forced to cover the bulk of the trade deficit by issuing private and government debt instruments.
In the United States, the trade deficit, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, in 2006 amounted to 836 (due to the consumption of cheap Asian and Mexican goods, as well as raw materials).
In underdeveloped countries, a negative trade balance indicates the uncompetitiveness of export sectors of the economy, which often leads to devaluation (depreciation) of the funds of such countries due to the fact that they cannot pay for import purchases.
Balance of payments deficit
One of the main factors of shortage is the excess of the cost of goods over their volume. The balance of payments patterns of the same country change in parallel with development.
Methods for financing balance of payments deficits
The balance of payments deficit is covered by financing. Methods for covering the balance of payments deficit can be divided into three groups - current (temporary) financing, financing from and exceptional financing.
Temporary financing
Temporary methods of balancing the balance of payments include the use of foreign loans, the import of capital, short-term loans by agreement between central banks that provide each other with national currency, the sale of foreign and placement of national securities to control gold from reserves, demonetizing it;
Special Drawing Rights (SDR) are an issued reserve asset allocated among member countries in accordance with their quotas, used to purchase foreign currency, make loans and make payments. Countries can purchase SDRs from each other and make payments in SDRs. However, SDRs represent no more than 3% of the world's reserve assets and play virtually no significant role;
The reserve position in the IMF is the sum of a country's reserve share in the IMF and the IMF's debt to that country. The reserve share is 25% of the country's quota in the IMF capital and can be received back by the country with virtually no conditions. Purchases of foreign currency for national currency within the reserve share, which is not considered, like receiving an IMF loan, lead to an increase in the reserve assets of the purchasing country;
Foreign exchange assets are usually the most significant portion of international assets, consisting of claims to foreign exchange, bank securities, government securities, other securities, financial securities, shares of private enterprises and claims arising from agreements between domestic and foreign central banks, as well as government agencies;
Other claims are all other claims denominated in foreign currency or securities that may be included in the definition of a central bank's international assets.
Exceptional Financing
Exceptional financing is used in conditions of a balance of payments crisis with a negative balance of payments balance, which cannot be covered in the current year by reducing reserve assets, since either they are simply not enough or they cannot be legally used for these purposes.
Exceptional financing - operations carried out by a country experiencing difficulties in financing a negative balance of payments, in agreement and with the support of its foreign partners, in order to reduce this balance to a level that can be financed by traditional means.
Transactions on exclusive financing can take place in any item of the balance of payments and are usually not separated into a separate group. The most significant of them are the following:
Debt cancellation is a voluntary renunciation of part or all of the debt, fixed in the relevant agreement between the creditor country and the debtor country. In the balance of payments, debt cancellation is reflected as a capital transfer in the capital account;
An exchange of debt for shares is an exchange of overdue debt and other debt obligations for shares of companies in the debtor country;
Balance of payments stabilization programs are usually combined with measures to improve the economy, curb inflation, reduce the payment deficit, etc. Compensatory regulation of the balance of payments is usually used, based on a combination of two opposing sets of measures:
Restrictive (credit restrictions, including increasing interest rates, curbing the growth of the money supply, imports of goods, etc.); reflecting a situation in which the total net receipts of foreign currency into the country are negative.
A balance of payments deficit over a long period of time forces the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the country's central bank to decline in order to maintain the balance of payments, the consequence of which is:
Devaluation of the national currency;
Introducing restrictions on unilateral transfers of funds abroad and on making mutual payments between countries;
A decrease in investment receipts into the country, which leads to a decrease in cash receipts on the state’s balance of payments;
Forced reduction of expenses in foreign economic activity.
The balance of payments deficit in the short term is covered by financing the positive balance or surplus of the balance of payments on capital transactions, that is, by attracting foreign entrepreneurial or loan capital to the country.
Foreign capital is more preferable because it improves the investment climateA systematic balance of payments deficit does not indicate a crisis in the country's balance of payments only if the country has an excellent investment climate for domestic and foreign investors, since the state's balance of payments deficit can be systematically covered by the net movement of foreign entrepreneurial capital.
Balance of payments deficit from a microeconomics perspective
The balance of payments deficit is an indicator that reflects the excess of the amount of payments to foreign business entities over the amount of funds received from foreign business entities.
A balance of payments deficit forces a business entity to:
Reduce the amount of payments to foreign businessmen and legal entities;
Increase revenues from foreign business entities;
Increase accounts receivable turnover;
Introduce restrictions on unilateral transfers of funds;
Attract foreign investors;
Find ways to reduce production;
Expand reproduction;
Look for ways to increase profits and other actions related to reducing the balance of payments deficit, increasing the economic condition and position of the business entity.
When the national currency is devalued, accounts receivable in the national currency gradually depreciate in value, which indicates a reduction in the balance of payments deficit, but the devaluation of the national currency will entail a number of negative factors affecting the country's economy as a whole.
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