Thursday, August 7, 2008

Our $100 Trillion National Debt

The "official" debt of the United States is only around $10 trillion dollars as of August 6, 2008. This is a manageable number; we could pay it off in a few decades if we quit buying luxuries like food and clothing, and take a few other minor economy measures. Unfortunately, the "$10 trillion" number was produced by government accounting, which among other things allows one to ignore Social Security, Medicare, and the new prescription drug benefit. This is like ignoring rent, food, and utilities in your household budget… it will lead to a few bounced checks. Our real debt is about ten times higher.!

Ten times $10 trillion? That's a staggering amount of debt. Are we doomed or can we possibly recover? Bill Walker has a few suggestions.


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