2 ms·

Total US Debt so far: $301 Trillion dollars. $1.5M per person

3 points by dare2d4l2 18y ago

all with the latest data 9.8T in bailouts http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aGq2B3XeGKok 11T in government debts http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/ 17T in corporate debts http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/business/economy/04charts.html?em 1T in credit card debts http://www.opposingviews.com/articles/opinion-americans-1-trillion-in-cr... 11T in mortgages http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aGq2B3XeGKok 52T in social security/medicare obligations http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/Medicare--Social-Security-Ow... Like other government trust funds (highway, unemployment insurance and so forth), the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds exist purely for accounting purposes: to keep track of surpluses and deficits in the inflow and outflow of money. The accumulated Social Security surplus actually consists of paper certificates (non-negotiable bonds) kept in a filing cabinet in a government office in West Virginia. These bonds cannot be sold on Wall Street or to foreign investors. They can only be returned to the Treasury. In essence, they are little more than IOUs the government writes to itself. http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba616 200T in derivatives in banks http://www.occ.treas.gov/deriv/deriv.htm Not including derivatives; 101T. including it, 301T Can't really pay it off anytime soon.... 2.3T budget deficit this year. 10T in the next 10 years. http://www.cnsnews.com/Public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=45528

nostrademons 18y ago
This is really misleading. Much of that "debt" is in the form of obligations to U.S. citizens. For example, the $52T in social security/medicare is only an obligation because the government has promised to pay people like you and me. That's $52T we have to pay, but it's also $52T that we'll be receiving. The same goes for derivatives. Every liability on someone's books is an asset on someone else's. The real problem is that with all these financial firms going belly-up, we don't know who's holding the debt and who owes it.
- whichdokta 18y ago
  The use of the word "only" in front of the description "an obligation" is what is really misleading. Another way of saying "we don't know who's holding the debt and who owes it" is to say: "I don't have the cash on hand to pay you what I owe you but I promise you that the cheque will be in the mail any day now."

3 points by dare2d4l2 18y ago

nostrademons 18y ago

This is really misleading. Much of that "debt" is in the form of obligations to U.S. citizens. For example, the $52T in social security/medicare is only an obligation because the government has promised to pay people like you and me. That's $52T we have to pay, but it's also $52T that we'll be receiving. The same goes for derivatives. Every liability on someone's books is an asset on someone else's. The real problem is that with all these financial firms going belly-up, we don't know who's holding the debt and who owes it.

whichdokta 18y ago
The use of the word "only" in front of the description "an obligation" is what is really misleading. Another way of saying "we don't know who's holding the debt and who owes it" is to say: "I don't have the cash on hand to pay you what I owe you but I promise you that the cheque will be in the mail any day now."