Plan B Forum

(Reuters) - President Ronald Reagan once famously said that a stack of $1,000 bills equivalent to the U.S. government's debt would be about 67 miles high.

That was 1981. Since then, the national debt has climbed to $14.3 trillion. In $1,000 bills, it would now be more than 900 miles tall.

In $1 bills, the pile would reach to the moon and back twice.

The United States hit its legal borrowing limit on Monday, and the Treasury Department has said the U.S. Congress must raise the debt ceiling by August 2 to avoid a default.

The White House is trying to hammer out a deal with lawmakers to cut federal spending in exchange for a debt-limit increase.

Most people have trouble conceptualizing $14.3 trillion.

Stan Collender, a budget expert at Qorvis Communications, said the biggest sum most Americans have ever handled -- in real or play money -- is the $15,140 in the original, standard Monopoly board game.

The United States borrows about 185 times that amount each minute.

Here are some other metrics for understanding the size of the national debt and United States borrowing:

* U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said the United States borrows about $125 billion per month.

With that amount, the United States could buy each of its more than 300 million residents an Apple Inc iPad.

* In a 31-day month, that means the United States borrows about $4 billion per day.

A stack of dimes equivalent to that amount would wrap all the way around the Earth with change to spare.

* In one hour, the United States borrows about $168 million, more than it paid to buy Alaska in 1867, converted to today's dollars.

In two hours, the United States borrows more than it paid France for present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and the rest of the land obtained by the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.

* The U.S. government borrows more than $40,000 per second. That's more than the cost of a year's tuition, room and board at many universities.

"That usually gets their attention," Doug Holtz-Eakin, who was chief White House economist under President George W. Bush, said in an email. "I have two kids, so every 10 seconds, the feds borrow more than I paid lifetime."

* The Congressional Budget Office projects the total budget deficit in fiscal 2011 at about $1.4 trillion.

"The net worth of Bill Gates, roughly around $56 billion, could only cover the deficit for 15 days," said Jason Peuquet, a policy analyst with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "The net worth of Warren Buffet, roughly around $50 billion, could only cover the deficit for 13 days."


http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/ ... TL20110519

You DO know that when you do this you're borrowing from your children to give me something over $10,000/yr, right? right?

oldr_n_wsr wrote:

You DO know that when you do this you're borrowing from your children to give me something over $10,000/yr, right? right?

Are they "giving" you $10,000 a year or just taking $10,000 a year less from you?

While I agree they shouldn't borrow to take less from you, they should get their house in order. If you don't have the money, you can't spend anymore.

Is America in denial about the extent of its financial problems, and therefore incapable of dealing with the gravest crisis the country has ever faced?


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13906274

Gob wrote:

Is America in denial about the extent of its financial problems, and therefore incapable of dealing with the gravest crisis the country has ever faced?


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13906274

Gob wrote:

Is America in denial about the extent of its financial problems, and therefore incapable of dealing with the gravest crisis the country has ever faced?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13906274

Long Run wrote:

Gob wrote:

Is America in denial about the extent of its financial problems, and therefore incapable of dealing with the gravest crisis the country has ever faced?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13906274

Given that the last mid-term election was about getting the financial situation under control, there's is little denial. There is not a consensus on how to deal with the problem, but that will develop. Our way, of course, is to let the car be inches away from the cliff before doing anything, but one can be hopeful that Congress starts turning the car well before then on this topic. Agreed that this is not the "gravest crisis" the U.S. has ever faced -- what kind of silly editor hyperventilates like that?