The Congressional Budget Office yesterday said the federal budget deficit had ballooned to about $438 billion in fiscal year 2008, compared to $162 billion the year before. That number is "about $31 billion higher than the $407 billion deficit CBO projected this summer, primarily due to lower-than-projected revenues and higher-than-expected spending for defense and deposit insurance," CBO said.
Wondering how this might affect defense spending in the near future? While Joseph Campbell of Barclays Capital did an informal survey of defense contractors recently who told him they felt that the recent financial turmoil wouldn't impact their credit ratings, Wall Street folks will get a chance to ask senior U.S. defense contractor officials directly during the upcoming quarterly earnings conference calls.
Here are links to the big ones (all times Eastern):
Lockheed Martin -- Oct. 21, 11am
Boeing -- Oct. 22, 10:30am
General Dynamics: Oct. 22, 11:30am
Raytheon -- Oct. 23, 9am
United Technologies -- Oct. 16, 10am
Northrop Grumman -- Date/time not finalized yet
We'll keep you posted on any major developments.