Liberal Democrat peer Lord Hooson called on the government to use some of the Treasury's surplus to help farmers.

BBC: Disease source 'may not be traced'

But councils say they have followed Treasury advice by investing surplus money to deliver the highest return for taxpayers.

BBC: Councils 'not reckless with cash'

The current campaign is to wrest powers over the seabed from the Crown Estate Commission, the unaccountable body that supplies its surplus direct to the Treasury and which, as custodian of Her Britannic Majesty's seabed, holds the keys to the hoped-for boom in offshore renewable energy.

BBC: Balance of payments

Tax revenues poured into the Treasury and the federal government ran a surplus in FYs 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001.

FORBES: Watching With Horror As The U.S. Plumbs The Depths Of Austerity

After the trust fund is credited for all of its own receipts, exactly as in current law, the Treasury will be left with the unified budget surplus.

WHITEHOUSE: Testimony of Jacob Lew

Ironically, the turning-point came earlier this year, when it was suggested that, as the supply of Treasury bonds dwindles thanks to the federal government's surplus, mortgage-agency debt could replace them as the benchmark used for pricing other fixed-income securities.

ECONOMIST: Homesick blues

Such people, land-rich but cash-poor, may now submit their credits to the state treasury for a full cash refund whenever the state budget is in surplus.

ECONOMIST: Clever ways to save land in the newly populous West

In early October the Treasury released a pre-election economic and fiscal update indicating that after 14 years in surplus the budget balance was set to slip into deficit.

ECONOMIST: New Zealand's new government

Payroll taxes were raised and a surplus generated that is placed in the Social Security Trust Fund, which invests in Treasury bonds.

ECONOMIST: Plugging the spending gap