Can the national debt be measured?!? Well, it’s running out of space on the National Debt Clock located in NYC. Last month our national debt exceeded $10 trillion for the first time. The dollar sign on the clock was replaced with a “1″ and a “$” was adhered next to it.
You can check the Treasury Direct website to find out to the penny what the current debt is. As I write this the current debt is $10,245,247,740,307.58. That’s a pretty big number! Thought credit card debt is bad? This debt also incurs interest to the tune of at least $450 billion.
When US Government expenses exceed the revenue it collects then we get debt. Most of this debt is made up of government debt instruments such as Treasury Bills, Treasury Notes, Treasury Bonds, and US Savings Bonds.
Of the total, roughly 25% of the debt is held by foreign governments. That’s over $2.5 trillion!
In 2007 the US debt was 65% of the GDP!
We hear a lot about companies that are highly leveraged with debt that are in trouble now. How long until the US government is over-leveraged? Imagine running your family where your debt is 65% of your salary!
How do you feel about the national debt?
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
The fact that we ran out of room on our debt clock is unbelievable! The number is dizzying!
@ BSCC – To say it’s a big number is a huge understatement! It’s tough to even get my head around that number.
$10 trillion as a national debt is staggering and mind-boggling. What will be the national debt in the future when our children and grandchildren are 21 years of age? That’s really scary!
@ Nancy – I can only hope that by then the budget would be under better control. But really who know?
Did my experimental film call the bankruptcies, a year earlier in 2007? The film is screening in Dallas and Hamburg next month, and is available for free viewing at the film’s site.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/10/prweb1470774.htm
I think we’re setting ourselves up for problems later. Since politicians don’t want to raise taxes or cut the budget, they just load up the debt.
@ Charter – It will be interesting to see what the next administration does about it.
Indeed. It is very scary how much debt this country has. How we can afford to bailout banks with 25% of our debt being held by foreign countries makes it seem like in a few years, any imported product will be unaffordable. We’re good at printing money, driving up inflation and bailing banks out, but we need to focus on strengthening the USD.