US Debt Clock

[Odie 0]

US debt clock running out of time, space

 

 

NEW YORK (AFP) - Tick, 20,000 dollars, tock, another 20,000 dollars.

 

So rapid is the rise of the US national debt, that the last four digits of a giant digital signboard counting the moving total near New York's Times Square move in seemingly random increments as they struggle to keep pace.

 

The national debt clock, as it is known, is a big clock. A spot-check last week showed a readout of 8.3 trillion -- or more precisely 8,310,200,545,702 -- dollars ... and counting.

 

But it's not big enough.

 

Sometime in the next two years, the total amount of US government borrowing is going to break through the 10-trillion-dollar mark and, lacking space for the extra digit such a figure would require, the clock is in danger of running itself into obsolescence.

 

The clock's owner, real estate developer Douglas Durst, knew such a problem could arise but hadn't counted on it so soon.

 

"We really expected it to be quite some time," Durst told AFP. "But now, with the pace of debt growth only increasing, we're looking at maybe two years and certainly before President (George W.) Bush leaves office in 2009."

 

The clock was the invention of Durst's father, Seymour Durst, who nursed a keen sense of fiscal responsibility and believed government profligacy to be a national curse.

 

The elder Durst, who died in 1995, originally thought of the idea in the early 1980s as the US budget deficit started to mount during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, but the technology was not immediately available to realise his vision.

 

The original 11 foot by 26 foot (3.3 meter by 8.9 meter) clock was eventually erected a block from Manhattan's Times Square in 1989 when the national debt stood at 2.7 trillion.

 

For the next decade it tracked, odometer style, the government's red ink with an extra feature which, by dividing the main figure by the number of families in the country, offered an estimate for how much each family owed as their share.

 

Toward the close of the millennium, with a booming economy fuelling annual budget surpluses, the clock began to slow and finally ran into its first mechanical problem.

 

"It wasn't designed to run backwards," Douglas Durst explained.

 

Believing that the signboard had served its purpose, the Dursts pulled the plug in 2000 with the debt total showing around 5.7 trillion dollars and the individual "family share" standing at close to 74,000 dollars.

 

The clock was covered with a red, white and blue curtain, but not dismantled.

 

"We'll have it ready in case things start turning around, which I'm sure they will," Durst said at the time.

 

He only had to wait two years as the Bush presidency coincided with an upsurge in borrowing. The curtain was raised in 2002 and the digital readout flickered back to life showing a national debt of 6.1 trillion dollars with the numerals whizzing round faster than ever.

 

In 2004, the old clock was torn down and replaced with a newer model which had optimistically been modified to run backwards should such a happy necessity arise.

 

Instead the debt continued to rise at such a rate that the once unthinkable total of 10 trillion dollars veered from alarmist fantasy into the realm of impending reality.

 

"When it became clear what was going to happen, our first thought was to free up the digital square occupied by the dollar sign so that we could cope with a 14th digit," Durst said.

 

The latest plan is for yet another replacement, involving a larger scale signboard.

 

"We're not happy at the impact we're making with this one," he said.

 

Durst insists that the clock is non-partisan in its effort to shame the federal government over what he sees as its willingness to gamble away the nation's future.

 

"We're a family business," Durst said. "We think generationally, and we don't want to see the next generation crippled by this burden," he said.

 

Last week, the "family share" readout on the clock stood some loose change short of 90,000 dollars.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

I wonder if Odie realises that part of this debt goes to pay for her Navy salary, uniforms, food, quarters, etc.

 

No disrespect intended but it always irks me when public employees complain about the public debt, especially someone in a quartermaster's position because they are spenders and beneficiaries of that debt.

 

I am certainly no fan of rampant government spending, but you have to consider who OWNS that debt. For the most part it is American households, and to them that debt is an asset. Sure the government might owe around $74K to each household, but that also means each household holds around $74K in relatively risk-free T-bills and bonds which can easily be sold.

[Odie 0]

Please don't assume that you know what I do in the Navy. Actually a quartermaster in the Navy is different than being in the Army. Vastly different. We miss well come from different planets. I don't deal in money or supply side. That is a different rate in the Navy. I am in navigation which means I drive the ship, maintain the charts, observe the weather, stand watches on the bridge, and have knowledge of honors and ceremonies.

 

I also didn't say anything, but post a topic that I have been very interested in since I was a child. I didn't say I was for or against the nation dept. By the way the dept doesn't pay me, the taxes which you and me does. Yes, I do pay taxes just every other American. Because I am a paying tax member I should have right to say about the national dept.

 

I am very much concerned about the dept the country is getting into. But that was not the reason why I post the article. As I said before I thought this would be an interesting article to read, because the sigh will run out digits sooner than original designed. That is all I wanted show and nothing more.

[trekz 7]

I wonder if Odie realises that part of this debt goes to pay for her Navy salary, uniforms, food, quarters, etc.

 

No disrespect intended but it always irks me when public employees complain about the public debt, especially someone in a quartermaster's position because they are spenders and beneficiaries of that debt.

 

I am certainly no fan of rampant government spending, but you have to consider who OWNS that debt. For the most part it is American households, and to them that debt is an asset. Sure the government might owe around $74K to each household, but that also means each household holds around $74K in relatively risk-free T-bills and bonds which can easily be sold.

 

 

Please don't assume that you know what I do in the Navy. Actually a quartermaster in the Navy is different than being in the Army. Vastly different. We miss well come from different planets. I don't deal in money or supply side. That is a different rate in the Navy. I am in navigation which means I drive the ship, maintain the charts, observe the weather, stand watches on the bridge, and have knowledge of honors and ceremonies.

 

I also didn't say anything, but post a topic that I have been very interested in since I was a child. I didn't say I was for or against the nation dept. By the way the dept doesn't pay me, the taxes which you and me does. Yes, I do pay taxes just every other American. Because I am a paying tax member I should have right to say about the national dept.

 

I am very much concerned about the dept the country is getting into. But that was not the reason why I post the article. As I said before I thought this would be an interesting article to read, because the sigh will run out digits sooner than original designed. That is all I wanted show and nothing more.

I also don't mean any disrespect but it truly irks me when a public employee makes a valid point and a taxpayer jumps on them without all the facts. As a former teacher and current public librarian I've seen it too often. Mention needed improvements for schools and libraries and taxpayers start ranting first and asking intelligent questions later.

 

This article is an interesting one, at least to me. Thank you Odie for posting it!

 

I am no economist but one of the dangers of the huge debt being piled up as I understand it is the fact that foreign investors, and in some cases foreign countries, hold a large amount of the loans on this debt. If they were to all begin to ask for repayment as the loans came due, the U.S could have a real problem.

 

I definitely am concerned about the national debt and also my state's debt. The federal government has turned a number of funding responsibilities back to the staes and it has caused problems for many state governments. In Illinois my governor and his Democratic legislators "balanced" the state budget by stopping payment on MY pension Illinois Municipal Retirement fund that I have contibutyed to for over 24 years. Millions have been borrowed and when the loans come due in ten years there will be a HUGE problem for Illinois. Maybe I'm an alarmist, but the National debt scares me.

Edited March 31, 2006 by trekz

[Odie 0]

It is always irks me when someone says the taxpayers this x amount of money for an improvement as if I don't pay taxes myself.