Monday, April 10, 2006
National Debt Reaches $8.4 Trillion
Today's national debt is more out of control than at any given time in U.S. history, or probably in the history of civilization itself. According to the U.S. National Debt Clock, our national debt is now over $8.4 trillion and skyrocketing fast enough that it will soon be necessary for Congress to pass yet another law raising the debt ceiling even higher (one wonders why they don't pass a law simply abolishing the notion of a debt ceiling).
This figure is only a fraction of our total indebtedness (which includes both personal and corporate debt). And to whom is all this debt owed? To the banks, and ultimately to the international banking cartel.
US debt: At least it's not $1 zillion
Thu Mar 16, 2006 1:49 PM ET
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For those who struggle to balance their checkbooks every month, it might be difficult to comprehend the meaning of Thursday's vote by the U.S. Senate to raise the government debt limit to nearly $9 trillion.
After all, how much is a trillion?
It's the number one followed by 12 zeros. But that doesn't shed much light on just how deeply in debt the federal government is that it must pass a law enabling it to borrow up to $8.965 trillion.
"It's hard to understand what a trillion is. I don't know what it is," confessed Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, this week when debating the government's staggering fiscal obligations.
[Read the rest here.]
Here's a method for understanding just how high the sums are. Consider a baseball player whose contract pays him a tidy $2.5 million per year. This is higher salary than most of us will ever see in our lives, as it is. But this player would have to play baseball for 3,360,000 years--that's 3.36 million years--to earn an amount of money equal to that of our current national debt.
I guess we can always tell ourselves it's only Federal Reserve created fiat money anyway.
This figure is only a fraction of our total indebtedness (which includes both personal and corporate debt). And to whom is all this debt owed? To the banks, and ultimately to the international banking cartel.
US debt: At least it's not $1 zillion
Thu Mar 16, 2006 1:49 PM ET
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For those who struggle to balance their checkbooks every month, it might be difficult to comprehend the meaning of Thursday's vote by the U.S. Senate to raise the government debt limit to nearly $9 trillion.
After all, how much is a trillion?
It's the number one followed by 12 zeros. But that doesn't shed much light on just how deeply in debt the federal government is that it must pass a law enabling it to borrow up to $8.965 trillion.
"It's hard to understand what a trillion is. I don't know what it is," confessed Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, this week when debating the government's staggering fiscal obligations.
[Read the rest here.]
Here's a method for understanding just how high the sums are. Consider a baseball player whose contract pays him a tidy $2.5 million per year. This is higher salary than most of us will ever see in our lives, as it is. But this player would have to play baseball for 3,360,000 years--that's 3.36 million years--to earn an amount of money equal to that of our current national debt.
I guess we can always tell ourselves it's only Federal Reserve created fiat money anyway.
