Tuesday, October 13, 2009

US DEBT CLOCK - A look behind the changing numbers

Looking at the US Debt clock today, it is no wonder the US Dollar is taking a nose dive in the world currency market. On my way back from buying cheap US gas and milk in Bellingham today, I heard the Canadian Dollar was at 97 cent when compared to the US Dollar. I know that is nowhere near the 1.10 high it hit a few years ago, but it is moving closer to par.

So when you look at the US Debt Clock, what do all those flashing numbers mean? Well, according to the US Debt Clock, the US is in some serious financial doo doo. Here are some US Debt clock numbers to make you run for the Prozac.







According to the US Debt clock, the total US National Debt is $11,917,619,433,350 and counting. Just so you know how fast it is counting it has now advanced by over 2 Million dollars since I typed in the original number. Once again, according to the US Debt clock, that US National Debt works out to a per citizen liability of $38,742 (That is man woman and child) If you work that out to per tax payer, the numbers are even more staggering.

Now, lets take a look at where all that debt is. Well, first of all, the Chinese Government owns a butt load of the US National Debt. Although the US National Debt clock does not give a breakdown of which countries own how much of the debt, the total portion of US National Debt held by foreign countries is $ 2,537,049,700,455 Keeping in mind the Total US National Debt has grown over 20 Million since I first started this post.

So where does that debt come from? Well, this is a cumulative debt which has built up over the years. According to the US Debt Clock, the total US National Debt is over 9,000,000,000,000 over the Total US Government Spending for this year to date.

So what about the Assets of the US Government. Well, according to the US National Debt clock, if the US Government was to declare bankruptcy today, the total value of all the Government Assets is 73,656,659,133,245 and counting. Of course the appreciation of assets is far slower than the appreciation of US National Debt, most of the asset growth can be attributed to Tax Income.






Of course, that is not all that Rosy as there is still one other number which for some reason is not reflected entirely in the Total US National Debt. This is the US Unfunded Liabilities which includes Social Security, Prescription Drugs and Medicare Liability $ 105,669,950,131,233. Which works $343,441 per citizen which really sucks considering the Asset Division per US Citizen is only $239,394 which basically means every US Citizen is on the hook for $ 104,047 after all the assets are sold.

That being said, it is not realistic to say the US Government will go into Bankruptcy, well that is unless these foreign countries decide to collect on the debt, which according to the US National Debt is sitting around $ 3,537,061,605,038 and counting which is quite abit larger than the $ 2,537,049,700,455 of about 5 minutes ago.

Of course, in order to keep these foreign countries happy, the US Government needs to keep buying sh!t from them. And by "sh!t" I mean products made in China. For that reason, the US Debt clock currently lists a US Trade deficit with China of $ 365,501,159,063 no hold on that is $ 365,501,866,283. Yes, the Citizens of the United States just bought over 700,000 worth of lead painted made in China Garbage than the Government of China bought from US Companies. All in the time it took for me to type 5 words. That number is now 2,000,000 more that the lst time I checked.

So that is all fine and dandy, what about the average person, or Joe Sixpack as someone likes to say. Well, According to the US Debt clock, there were 1,098,000 bankruptcies in the US this year alone. In addition, there were 689,436 foreclosures. The US workforce consists of 138,525,714 people 4,232,208 of which are government employees. Of those workers, the US National Debt clock only lists 108,353,191 workers are listed as US Tax Payers. According to the US National Debt Clock, that means 30,172,523 of the total US Workforce is not paying taxes. OK, so you are saying that is the "Wetbacks" well, nope. Illegal Immigrants only account for just over 10,000,000 people and that includes children who are not in the workforce.

With all those bankruptcies and foreclosures, there is of course the now famous US Government bailouts. According to the US National Debt clock, the total amount of money spent on US Government bailouts between 2008 and 2009 is 11,476,536,090,435 and shrinking. I guess the US Government is seeing bailouts as nothing but a waste of money on Bank Executives who only use the money to fly to the Bahama's (Probably to hide the money they just pilfered from the recently bailed out company)

To be quite honest, my head is really starting to hurt and my eyes are getting buggy from looking at the US National Debt clock ticker. Just so you know, According to the US National Debt clock, the Total US National debt is now $ 11,917,713,043,897 which when compared to the $ 11,917,619,433,350 from when I started this post about 45 minutes ago has grown by $ 93,610,547. And that is with the current low interest rates. So next time you think the US Government is keeping interest rates low... think again, imagine how much faster the US National Debt Clock will tick away if the interest rates hit the highs of the 80's. If you think that isn't going to happen, think again. As the US goes further into debt and there are less people working which means lower tax revenue all those Foreign Governments (Read China) will see the US as a higher financial risk. Therefor, in order for these foreign governments to continue purchasing US Federal Bonds (Lend the US Money) Interest rates will have to go up.





So what will that mean to the $ 14,330,621,094,138 of US Mortgage debt (which is shrinking as foreclosures and bankruptcies increase) and 892,019,537,505 (And growing) credit card debt? Hmmm, with 41 more bankruptcies since I last checked and 27 more foreclosures (in 5 minutes) you do the math. In about half that time, the total credit card debt in the US has grown by $ 254,340.

Not to make light of a really bad situation, but the one thing the US National Debt clock does not list is the suicide rate after everyone looks at the US National Debt clock. Although I did not record the Population change over the time of this post, I will take a quick monitor it for the next few minutes. FYI, the US Workforce has shrunk by 10,358 people since I last looked. How many of those are as a result of death, I do not know. at 8:18 PST the US population is at 307,689,981 and growing while the workforce continues to shrink at about the same rate, if not slightly faster.

So, according to the US National Debt clock, as the population of the US grows, the workforce continues to shrink. The US National debt and tax income continue to grow. Us Federal Bailouts shrink and Personal Bankruptcies, foreclosures and credit card debt continue to rise. hmmm, I'm thinking that cheap US Gas and milk is going to get alot cheaper by way of the shrinking difference between the US and Canadian Dollar. Of course, it is all relative as the Canadian Government is in just as much of a sh!t pile as the US government. Perhaps the US Government needs to include Canadian Government stupidity under an Asset category. After all, if it wasn't for the whacked out fuel taxes and Dairy board I would be buying my milk and Gas in Canada.
OK 9 minutes and the US population is 307,690,010 and the US workforce is 138,515,205. You can do the math, I need a drink... Sh!t, I should have bought some cheap US booze while I was down there.

No comments:

Post a Comment