How Big Is the U.S. Debt?

For more details on the total Federal debt, start on slide 35 of this PowerPoint presentation: http://www.antolin-davies.com/presentations/ihs11a.ppt

Economics professor Antony Davies illustrates the size the U.S. federal government's debt and unfunded obligations. He breaks down the total U.S. debt and obligations into parts and compares them with the size of the GDP of countries around the world, showing the magnitude of America's fiscal situation.

Want to give that graph a closer look? Prof. Davies has made it available on his website here:
http://www.antolin-davies.com/conventionalwisdom/governmentdebt.pdf

Category:

Education

Tags:

• economics
• U.S.
• United States
• american
• debt
• spending
• deficit
• unfunded
• obligations
• liabilities
• medicare
• social security

[AFMcKeown]

@MortimerTheClueless You have no idea how things work. Capitalism doesn't cause our government to owe the world 65 trillion dollars. The government thinking it can do anything without consequence does.

[215datdude]

RON PAUL

[StateExempt]

@Thewizzardof9 - Did he understate the problem?

[Z3ST0S]

Yet $500 billion owed by Greece... and the world points its cruel finger. f*** that!

[carolbabycakes333]

SHOCKING!! why hasnt anyone been paying attention to this?

[theredscourge]

@rodrigodet But wait, it gets even better! If you took everything from the richest 500 companies, the richest 500 people, and all the houses in Hollywood and sold them at exact current day values, you'd STILL not pay off the deficit of fiscal 2012 without borrowing.

[rodrigodet]

@MortimerTheClueless Wow If we took ALL the property away from the "1%" you know how much we would get?1.5 trilion dolars , thats hardly enough to cover the DEFICIT for ONE YEAR,not the debt the deficit, how about you atleast try to listen to some real economist like Peter Schiff, instead of propagandist like Miachel Moore and Bill Maher?

[astrowanabe]

@NottinghamForest22 That's current debt, doesn't include "unfunded liabilities" ie things we haven't gotten the bill for yet, and won't have the money to pay.

[blainealexander]

@NottinghamForest22 I guess it like, when a kid thinks he has most of his room clean and then he looks under his bed...

[Thewizzardof9]

Nice job of total misrepresentation.

[JJLatBIM]

@amxmachine Thanks for you interpretation. I think it's not quite in line most economists since GDP is a measure of the market value of final goods and services, services like medical care and some food preparation are included (if the consumer pays for the service like a personal chef as opposed to a cook at a restaurant where the consumer pays for the food, in which case the market value of the food is part of the GDP). But that doesn't address my original objection.