http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-05-28-debt_N.htm The latest increase raises federal obligations to a record $546,668 per household in 2008, according to the USA TODAY analysis. That's quadruple what the average U.S. household owes for all mortgages, car loans, credit cards and other debt combined. "We have a huge implicit mortgage on every household in America — except, unlike a real mortgage, it's not backed up by a house," says David Walker, former U.S. comptroller general, the government's top auditor. USA TODAY used federal data to compute all government liabilities, from Treasury bonds to Medicare to military pensions. Bottom line: The government took on $6.8 trillion in new obligations in 2008, pushing the total owed to a record $63.8 trillion. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oVOuC0qSrR8&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oVOuC0qSrR8&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
This is a highly misleading number. The obligations are over decades. Over those decades, the US GDP will be several hundred trillion. At just a 2% growth rate, the total US GDP over the next 25 years is about $450 trillion. Over 50 years, it's nearly $1200 trillion. In context, $60 trillion in obligations over that kind of time frame is not that scary. It's like adding up all your known future expenditures in life and saying that's your obligations, ignoring the fact that you'll have a lifetime of income as well.
I think even if the government suddenly says they won't pay for SS anymore, people will just take it in stride.
No - my position is exactly what I stated. That $63 trillion in long-term obligations is misleading and not outrageous given the timeframe involved.
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i know no one will see this here but the total credit market debt for the united states is over 53 trillion dollars. that is how much debt we have. that includes ALL debt. this number hasn't been updated for this year. the last update was in q4 2008 when it was around 52.5 trillion. http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/Current/accessible/l1.htm that number as a percentage of gdp is over 380%. math is hard.
this is from 3/31/08...you tell me where the slope increases. looks to me like it was the worst under reagan and bush.
I did - but it doesn't seem to indicate time frames on the debt (or total assets)? The reason I ask is that having $53T of debt coming due this year is very different than having $53T of debt coming due over 30 years. What I think would be most useful to compare to GDP is to see how much debt is coming due in 2009 or whatever.
