Whew! Good thing I am married!
DON'T YOU HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE TYPE IN ALL CAPS? IT'S LIKE THEY ARE YELLING.
Your math SUCKS.
To my knowledge, this is accurate. As can be seen in the first table at http://home.att.net/~rdavis2/debt06.html, foreign-owned public debt was $1.0579 trillion in 2000 and $1.8859 trillion in 2004. That's an increase of $0.828 trillion by 2004 so an increase of $1.05 trillion to the present day sounds reasonable. Much of this increase is likely prompted by our exploding trade deficit. Foreign governments invest much of this deficit back into the U.S. public debt. As point 4 on at aforementioned URL states, foreign-held public debt increased more than total public debt in 2004. Hence, in effect, the total increase was borrowed from foreign sources and an additional $48.1 billion of existing debt passed from domestic to foreign hands. Over the past three years, the increase in the foreign-held public debt has been 90.2 percent of the increase in the total public debt.
I wonder if there are any implications...
"The facts are not partisan, and they're not ideological," said David Walker, the nation's comptroller general. He should know. He's the nation's chief accountant and signs off on the government's balance sheet. America's fiscal future, he said, "is worse than advertised."
When the government next reports these numbers Dec. 15, the total is expected to reach $46 trillion to $50 trillion.
How much is $50 trillion? About $166,000 for each of the almost 300 million Americans. [Seatle Times]
American "wealth" is an illusion based on borrowed funds that will soon be cut off, followed by creditor claims. Are you ready to repay the $166,000 spent on your behalf?
Your quotes are accurate and come from the Seattle Times article at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002606771_budget06.html. However, this is the "unfunded liabilities", not the "public debt". Following is a quote from that story:
And that's only the tip of the iceberg. The real problem is that the government's unfunded liabilities — items that include everything from public debt to promised Medicare and Social Security benefits — are growing at staggering rates.
Those liabilities totaled $20.4 trillion in 2000. They reached $43.3 trillion by 2004, after President Bush and Congress increased spending and cut taxes.
This is a very serious problem. I especially agree with the proposal made at the end of the article that we need to return to "Pay-Go". However, you need to properly specify that the article is referring to unfunded liabilities, not public debt.
By the way, I noticed that the CNSNews article is at http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200511/NAT20051104b.html.
Even the welfare recipients/?????????
You seem to think this money is going to be paid back. You cannot sqeeze water from a rock.
Just another W should be walking behind a "Newer Spreader" in Crawford, TX. You BushBots will see, probably too late, what is happening under the W admin. He has ruined the conservative movement for many years to come, if not forever.
We represent only 5% of the world's population...as we all can see, a lot of towel heads think we're better off dead. The more people we owe money to...the more interested they ALL BECOME IN OUR WELFARE. Under the Clintons our net indebtedness actually declined..and it was coupled with a rise in domestic terrorism folks.
Title is a lie. The per capita public debt might be that amount, but it is not an individual debt.
Every single man, woman and child in America does NOT have a $166,000.00 public debt. It's a nonsensical statement.
Silly question.
No problem, sell Alaska to the Chinese and Hawaii to the Japanese, that should cover it.
Where did you get that number? Fifty trillion? WTF?
Does the US Treasury take Visa? If not, can I just pay the interest until I can start paying on the unpaid balance?
I'm quite willing to pay what I owe, I just need a little grace period to rearrange my other obligations. Another 20 or 30 years ought to do it.
After all, if every man, woman and child is responsible for the debt, then we are equally entitled to any assets.
Unless your purpose is to present a fact out of context for whatever purpose you may have.
I spent all mine in Iraq. One of the best investments ever.
Well I'm going to pay my share with $300 hammers and $ 600 toilet seats..I'll have a container full sent straight from China to the Treasury...
1. His conclusions about America's wealth being an illusion doesn't seem to be supported by his shallow analysis.
2. What is the debt to equity ratio of the US government?