Federal budget accounting

Before turning to yesterday's news from Goldman Sachs, a quick trip down memory lane.

Older (or should I say "more experienced"?) federal budget observers will remember the "transition quarter" or "TQ," the three-month period when the federal government switched from a fiscal year that began on July 1 to the current fiscal year that begins on October 1.

The change was mandated by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.  It was intended to give Congress and the president three extra months to get all of the work on the budget done before the fiscal year began and to reduce what at the time was considered to be an overuse of continuing resolutions to fund the government.

(Please stop laughing about that last line about stopping the reliance on continung resolutions.)