The U.S. posted the second-largest annual budget deficit on record for 2021 as pandemic-relief spending sustained the federal government’s massive borrowing needs. The deficit for the fiscal year through September was $2.77 trillion, compared with the $3.1 trillion peak seen in the previous year, a Treasury Department report showed on Friday. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and acting White House budget director Shalanda Young said in a statement that the U.S. economic recovery this year helped to shrink the deficit from its 2020 nadir. The resulting gap was $897 billion less than forecast in the administration’s ... (full story)