Posted on 01/03/2012 5:36:55 PM PST by lbryce
Unabridged Title:US Closes 2011 With Record $15.22 Trillion In Debt, Officially At 100.3% Debt/GDP, $14 Billion From Breaching Debt Ceiling
While not news to Zero Hedge readers who knew about the final debt settlement of US debt about 10 days ahead of schedule, it is now official: according to the US Treasury, America has closed the books on 2011 with debt at an all time record $15,222,940,045,451.09. And, as was observed here first in all of the press, US debt to GDP is now officially over 100%, or 100.3% to be specific, a fact which the US government decided to delay exposing until the very end of the calendar year. We wonder, rhetorically, just how prominent of a talking point this historic event will be in any upcoming GOP primary debates. And yes, technically this number is greater than the debt ceiling but it excludes various accounting gimmicks. When accounting for those, the US has a debt ceiling buffer of... $14 billion, or one third the size of a typical bond auction.
It's very interesting how only a few days ago I was reading about the Kenyan Kommunist looking to raise the debt ceiling once again. Hopefully, saner heads might somehow penetrate his left-wing, liberal, spend-to-the-end, disease-ravaged addled brain, put things in perspective for him. Spending money, the compulsion for it, shop-a-holic-ism, if you will, is a form of self-medication, no different than other vices people have been known to be under the influence of.
Wot? Please speak English I don't understand . . . ."
High treason.
I’m sure our great foreign policies had absolutely nothing to do with this country killing debt...The politicians are innocent, the banksters, those on Wall Street...
They’re all just innocence by-standers.
Party’s over.
Only thing at this point is who gets screwed less out of the deal (here’s a hint; us taxpayers are paying this regardless).
“too big to fail” famous last words.
He wants the impetus to push 90 percent top income tax rates again.
What does he care? At worst, he isn’t going to be around for the collapse. It’s going to fall on us younguns, who are going to have to pay it all back.
We're now way more in debt than what we produce, or we are worth. Gezzz.
I say we keep up these great foreign policies, wide open borders, endless legal immigration, those great free trade policies, all those big biz & bankster bailouts, etc!
I say we elect another business as usual, big-gov insider!!
Oh yeah!
Thou Shall Not Steal.
They’re tossing out the balloon of more easing today.Oil up over 3.00 now, getting close to 105. Commodities leading the false government protection rally. (They have to)
Continue to steal others fixed savings by the ease, and jack up their own salaries/pensions above the easing effects. sinister.
The only choice will be continued consumer shut down for rising price protection, resulting in unemployment pressure.
2012 Person of the Year:
The Big Fat Government Bureaucrat
[Well as my political science professors said 50 years ago, “We owe the money to ourselves. So what?” ]
If it were just $14 trillion we’d muddle through. But there are between $70 and $100 trillion in total unfunded liabilities (some even say $200T). The only way out is musical chairs with the Fed printing. Until the music stops.
Lots of people out here want business as usual...They have conflicts of interest etc. Temporary profits regardless of consequences...It’s all that matters.
I predict this thread will be as popular and public pay phones are.
Woo Hoo!!! We’re $15.22 TRILLION IN DEBT!!! Now that’s what I call “hope and change”!!! Thanks Barry!!!
Er,... I predict this thread will be as popular as public pay phones are.
And Obama and his friends are going to pay it all back when???
You could wipe out every federal department except for DoD and Social Security and Medicare and still not come close to resolving this debt problem long term. The interest on the debt alone will be too great by 2020 the way the feds are currently spending and borrowing. I’m not too hopeful that the ship will get righted regardless of who is elected in ‘12. The problem has grown too massive.
Yep...Watching all the cheerleaders do the pompom thing over their favorite politician, is funny, but only in a very insane way.
Maybe Obama sees the good people who bought the US debt as the 1% - folks he can screw over... That can happen.
But what happens 'next time'? Will the former investors - now referred to as 'chumps' - be there to loan cash again?
I doubt it. The US will quickly morph into Haiti or some equally stupid third world hellhole... No one's big enough to bail us out ...
That is a terrific graphic.
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