red ink

The tax increases under President Bill Clinton and the spending cuts enacted later by the Republican Congress helped to turn the red ink to black.

"If you're swimming in red ink, an infusion of cash helps stem the tide," he said of the bailout.

"Whenever I regained consciousness, the first thing I checked was my hands - to see if there was any red ink on them," Mr Ahn recalled in his July interview.

That’s no excuse, however, for Newsom to end-run California voters, or call a special election that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars at a time the state is gushing red ink.

In his client’s glam Beverly Hills refuge, he hung a red ink sketch of abstract dress forms.