Because the contributions come from the people who will enjoy the benefits in retirement, these plans are not prone to the same bad incentives that lead politicians to make their pension plans too generous, or corporations to leave theirs too spare.

ECONOMIST: Getting greyer—and poorer too? | The

We also thought they would probably cut or leave unchanged their estimate of spare capacity in the economy (the "output gap") - again, on the basis of their calculations in March.

BBC: The Bank, the OBR and Mr Osborne

But this would leave the global oil supply with little or no spare capacity and thus unable to cope with any other disruptions.

WSJ: Daniel Yergin: What's Behind Rising Gas Prices?

It's possible some agencies may yet be able to spare some employees from furloughs or at least minimize days of unpaid leave.

CNN: Obama, Republicans clash on forced spending cuts