Thanks to its ongoing stimulus spending, which it is not proposing to trim, Germany's underlying budget deficit is forecast to rise this year.

ECONOMIST: Myths about fiscal austerity

Mr Ryan speaks with conviction about the imperative of reining in the deficit, but the underlying premise of his ideas is not so much fiscal rectitude as small government.

ECONOMIST: Lexington

Though AAII members had been optimistic about the direction of stock prices, there was underlying unease about jobs, the federal deficit and the potential for rising interest rates and inflation.

FORBES: Bullish Sentiment Plunged Over Concerns About Middle East, Rising Interest Rates

Earnings and the economy are recovering, but there are still several underlying problems (unemployment, housing, the federal deficit, etc.).

FORBES: Bullish Sentiment Cools Off From Red Hot Levels In December and January

Then, there is the emphasis the commission is now placing on the so-called structural budget deficit, a measure designed to express the underlying strength or weakness of the budget that irons out the impact of swings in growth.

WSJ: In Small, Measured Steps, Europe Loosens Austerity

As there is value in the underlying infrastructure, profitable infrastructure spending that creates work and reduces the deficit is preferable to government transfer payments that can discourage work.

FORBES: Time for Solutions

The other was not: the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has become a bit more optimistic about underlying state of the economy, and that has meant that the chancellor's target measure of the deficit has not increased as much as expected.

BBC: The Bank, the OBR and Mr Osborne