Current U.S. National Debt Figures and Statistics
The U.S. National Debt Blows my Mind
I was goofing around on the internet this evening, and decided to check out the ridiculous amount of national debt that we are taking on now a days. Since we obviously have no regard for any type of fiscal responsibility, I decided to post this real time U.S. National Debt clock in this entry. It is only through seeing a visual illustration like this to really drive home the point of just how large the debt balloon has gotten.
Other National Debt Facts
The estimated population of the United States is 308,195,598
so each citizen’s share of this debt is $41,649.14.
The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$4.12 billion per day since September 28, 2007!
And Even More Debt Items to Consider
Maturity of U.S. debt ranges from less than a year to over 20 years, with the average maturity about 3 years. More than half of the debt, however, is short term, maturing in less than a year.”
This means that if rates on 3 month T-bills went to just 1% (), interest on just this short-term financed HALF of our debt would increase by a factor of at least 5 times, by the end of the year. Interest on half of 11.9 trillion (6 trillion) at .2% was about 12 billion. Five times that is 60 billion. If rates went to just 2%, the interest owed on this short-term financed HALF of our debt, would be 120 billion by the end of a single year. All other maturities would increase by greater percentages depending on the time length of the instruments. Since Moody’s recently announced they are considering downgrading their rating on U.S. debt, could rates skyrocket to banana republic levels?
T-bill rate table – We haven’t seen T-bill rates this low since the early 1940’s.
Historical Performance of the T-Bill
Based on the chart to the right, is it reasonable to expect our rates will remain at 70 year lows? How long will the Fed have the ability to remain in control of these ridiculously low rates, and when will market forces take over, setting rates to levels commensurate with an increasing perception that our nation will be unable to repay our debt?
All this while the Fed launches a feeble effort to head off a universal banking failure, and more importantly a money collapse, resulting from the unwinding of the phony money driven asset and real estate bubbles. The spike in interest rates in the charts above is what happened the last time we had democrats in complete control of our government under Jimmy Carter. If T-bill rates went to the Jimmy Carter 15% today, our annual interest expense, on just that short-term financed HALF of our debt, would rise to over 900 billion dollars – PER YEAR.
