

Total US Debt so far: $301 Trillion dollars. $1.5M per person - dare2d4l2

all with the latest data<p>9.8T in bailouts
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&#38;sid=aGq2B3XeGKok<p>11T in government debts
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/<p>17T in corporate debts
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/business/economy/04charts.html?em<p>1T in credit card debts
http://www.opposingviews.com/articles/opinion-americans-1-trillion-in-cr...<p>11T in mortgages
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&#38;sid=aGq2B3XeGKok<p>52T in social security/medicare obligations
http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/Medicare--Social-Security-Ow...<p>Like other government trust funds (highway, unemployment insurance and
so forth), the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds exist purely
for accounting purposes: to keep track of surpluses and deficits in
the inflow and outflow of money. The accumulated Social Security
surplus actually consists of paper certificates (non-negotiable bonds)
kept in a filing cabinet in a government office in West Virginia.
These bonds cannot be sold on Wall Street or to foreign investors.
They can only be returned to the Treasury. In essence, they are little
more than IOUs the government writes to itself.
http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba616<p>200T in derivatives in banks
http://www.occ.treas.gov/deriv/deriv.htm<p>Not including derivatives; 101T. including it, 301T<p>Can't really pay it off anytime soon....<p>2.3T budget deficit this year. 10T in the next 10 years.
http://www.cnsnews.com/Public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=45528
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nostrademons
This is really misleading. Much of that "debt" is in the form of obligations
to U.S. citizens. For example, the $52T in social security/medicare is only an
obligation because the government has promised to pay people like you and me.
That's $52T we have to pay, but it's also $52T that we'll be receiving.

The same goes for derivatives. Every liability on someone's books is an asset
on someone else's. The real problem is that with all these financial firms
going belly-up, we don't know who's holding the debt and who owes it.

~~~
whichdokta
The use of the word "only" in front of the description "an obligation" is what
is really misleading.

Another way of saying "we don't know who's holding the debt and who owes it"
is to say:

    
    
      "I don't have the cash on hand to pay you what I owe you but I promise you that the cheque will be in the mail any day now."

