Where the words come from
A balanced budget as government spending and taxes being equal — Principles of Economics 2e, OpenStax, licensed CC BY 4.0. https://openstax.org/books/principles-economics-2e/pages/30-3-federal-deficits-and-the-national-debt. Changes: "a balanced budget—that is, for government spending and taxes to be equal each year" recast as a definition, with "each year" dropped; the recap's summary of the three objectives and their measures is ours.
Deficits widening in recessions and narrowing in booms, and a rule to balance the budget every year stopping the automatic stabilisers and worsening fluctuations; large deficits triggering inflation and reducing national saving and growth; borrowing for long-term investment in infrastructure — Principles of Economics 2e, OpenStax, licensed CC BY 4.0. https://openstax.org/books/principles-economics-2e/pages/30-7-the-question-of-a-balanced-budget. Changes: The US balanced budget amendment dropped; "A requirement that the budget be balanced each and every year would prevent these automatic stabilizers from working and would worsen the severity of economic fluctuations" condensed into the mistake note, with British spelling; the mechanism of falling tax revenue and rising benefit spending made explicit, from 30.3; the inflation, national saving and investment points condensed into the budget explain; the mistake note's final sentence, on judging balance over the economic cycle, is ours (2e says no balance need be expected even over a few years).
Pollution as a negative externality whose costs pass on to society, and third parties with no voice in the exchange — Principles of Economics 2e, OpenStax, licensed CC BY 4.0. https://openstax.org/books/principles-economics-2e/pages/12-1-the-economics-of-pollution. Changes: "Pollution is a negative externality" kept; "the private costs of production that a company incurs and the external costs of pollution that pass on to society" and "you have no voice in their market transaction" condensed; the sentence on what protecting the environment means is ours; the net zero target is from the Net Zero Strategy; the steelworks check is ours.
No society should expect or desire complete equality of income; earnings across the life cycle and differing preferences; inequality most troubling when set by a child's circumstances; redistribution and the ladder of opportunity — Principles of Economics 2e, OpenStax, licensed CC BY 4.0. https://openstax.org/books/principles-economics-2e/pages/15-5-government-policies-to-reduce-income-inequality and https://openstax.org/books/principles-economics-2e/pages/15-4-income-inequality-measurement-and-causes. Changes: The opening argument and the ladder-of-opportunity point condensed; US programmes and the progressive federal income tax generalised to taxes on higher incomes and benefits for lower ones; the point that poverty can rise while inequality stays the same condensed from 15.4's Clear It Up, with its 10 per cent example kept in the check; judging progress by the Gini coefficient is ours, from the DWP definition.
The budget deficit as public sector net borrowing, the current budget as all receipts and current spending excluding net investment, the legislated fiscal targets, and the interest cost of the national debt — A brief guide to the public finances, Office for Budget Responsibility, April 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0. https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/brief-guides-and-explainers/public-finances/. Changes: "This gap is known as the budget deficit or 'public sector net borrowing'" used in the definition; "The current deficit counts all receipts and all current spending, but excludes spending on net investment" condensed; the guide's "legislated fiscal targets" kept without their dates or margins; the card definition of the deficit as a share of GDP, its example and the current-budget check are our own wording.
The UK's legally binding target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and net zero as remaining emissions balanced by removals — Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener, HM Government (October 2021), Open Government Licence v3.0. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/net-zero-strategy. Changes: The net zero commitment paraphrased; the card definition of greenhouse gas emissions and its example figures are our own.
The Gini coefficient as a summary of inequality running from complete equality to one individual having all income — Households Below Average Income: an analysis of the UK income distribution, FYE 1995 to FYE 2025, Department for Work and Pensions, Open Government Licence v3.0. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2025/households-below-average-income-an-analysis-of-the-uk-income-distribution-fye-1995-to-fye-2025. Changes: "ranges between 0% and 100%, where 0% indicates that income is shared equally among all individuals and 100% indicates the extreme situation where one individual has all a country's income" condensed and given on the zero-to-one scale; the example figures are ours.
Questions, options, diagrams and feedback are our own. Figures credited to a source above are that source's; every other figure is invented to show the method.