Check this out -- we're in some serious debt!

[Emillereid]

US gross external debt more than $6 trillion-Trsy
Wednesday October 8, 7:40 pm ET

WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (Reuters) - U.S. debt owed to foreign governments, central banks, private banks and other investors topped $6 trillion in the quarter ended June 30, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.


Of that, about $1.270 trillion in principal and another $53.73 billion in interest is due within the next 3 months, according to a new report on the U.S. external debt position issued by Treasury.

<snip>
The report shows the extent to which the United States remains dependent on foreign investment. Even for an economy totaling $10.803 trillion annually, the $6.357 trillion in external debt is a hefty 58.8 percent of gross domestic product.

By comparison, the U.S. government takes in about $2 trillion annually in taxes and fees, and the anticipated 2003 budget gap of around $400 billion would be about 3.7 percent of the overall economy.

<snip>
The report can be found at http://www.treas.gov/tic/external-debt.html.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/031008/economy_treasury_debt_1.html

[Capn Sunshine]

1. Howard Deans statement on this subject :

CONCORD, NH-Yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg News,
Comptroller General David M. Walker, head of the General Accounting
Office, disputed as "flat false" President Bush's assertion that
economic growth resulting from tax cuts will help shrink the federal
deficit.
Governor Dean issued the following:

"When the federal government's own chief auditor can't trust the
President's rosy scenario budget projections, something is wrong in
America. The truth is, these tax cuts were never meant to reduce
the deficit; they are part of a radical ideological agenda aimed at
starving the federal budget in order to force cuts in vital services
like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and public education.

"I'm tired of being misled by this administration. The President
should be honest about what the future of America will look like due
to his policies: it is an America where those at the top are
protected, those in the middle class must struggle to stay there,
and our seniors, our children and our low-income families will be
expected to fend for themselves. President Bush should level with
the people and let them decide if that's the America they want,
since that's the America they're getting.

"David Walker should be commended for saying what so many of us in
both parties have long argued: the supply-side theory that cutting
taxes will ultimately reduce deficits is a myth."

RIGHT ON HOWARD!!!

[arcane1]

3. preach on brother Howard

the word "looting" is too goddamn generous to describe what these devils are doing

:grr:

[Old and In the Way]

4. Pulls no punches......

He'd make a great President....

[JewelDigger]

2. We are in DEEP doo-doo......

....seriously, we are!!!

[Zan_of_Texas]

6. keep your eye on the $145 billion ball

The California pension fund has $145 Billion in assets. That's a lot of money, folks. Even in big money parlance, that is a lot.

CalPERS will be a juicy target for Pawnold and his friends. Just like UTIMCO (permanent university fund in Texas) was for George W. and his buddies. Just like the Florida pension fund (JEB was one of three on the oversight board) inexplicably lost over a hundred million dollars buying Enron stock as it plummeted in near freefall.

Yeah, looting doesn't begin to cover what's going on.

The government is broke so the response is, we fight wars for no reason, and give the rich money in tax cuts that the rest of us will have to pay back with interest, because it's borrowed money.

[jbutsz]

5. And that's just what's on paper..

What's the chance of us ever actually defaulting, considering that we're dependent on foreign investment according to this? Isn't much of foreign investment in the states is leaving now, or at least posturing to leave? What is left here to invest in?

With every economic report I read here lately I see a viscious pattern/cycle that spells economic ruin ahead.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. That is the nightmare.

No one really knows what would happen with a default. Or what the real chances are.

Since most federal bills are now paid with debt, not cash from tax and fee income, cashing those checks depends on selling new debt. Retiring old debt is paid with new debt.

If new debt isn't forthcoming, the only way the checks could clear would be to actually issue new money. Essentially, they would be firing up the presses to print more cash. This would not be good.

It would be very, very, bad.

I mean so bad you can't imagine how bad.

US dollars would be worthless, so we couldn't buy oil, BMW's, all that Chinese stuff in Wal-Mart, or anything else. It could take the rest of the world down with us.

You might be OK if you had a lot of gold. Or might not be.

[jbutsz]

9. Argentina: Episode II? :-O

Production and industry has been and is increasingly being shipped offshore to India, China, etc. In the event of a crash we won't have the ability to support ourselves for while. The only thing that pulled us out of the first depression was massive spending into the infrastructure (creating JOBS), massive spending we won't have the ability to do this time around because we have no capital and will no longer have ANY credit. Something tells me this might actually be the intention of the lunatics in power (political as well as corporate), to devolve America back down to cheap labor and plutocracy... Kind of like "resetting" the American Dream from square one.... or, The Matrix Reloaded..heh

[TreasonousBastard]

10. Actually,,,

the prevailing opinion is that all tha pump-priming going on back then helped, but would have taken forever to drag us out of the Depression.

Other stuff like Europe being at war, the drought, a lack of fully understanding monetary policy, etc. helped to hold us down.

Most people seem to agree that it was the massive amount of spending on the war that got us out of trouble. And that spending was fueled by debt.

Of course, we've become so addicted to debt for basic operations now that issuing a bunch of War Bonds would just be a drop in the bucket.

I think we're doomed.

But, I'm a depressed pessimist, so what do I know.

[Porcupine]

8. It's a debt that can NEVER be repaid; based upon an oil economy....

that projects endless growth. The economy cannot possibly grow endlessly when the primary physical input, petroleum, is a diminishing resource.

We will default. That or we will devalue the dollar so much that it means the same thing. It is physically impossible for the economy to continue with the current energy usage regime. There is insufficient investment to replace the current regime with any feasible alternative. Repayment of the debt demands a growing economy.

Google: dieoff.com or oilcrash or peak oil for more info.

[7th_Sephiroth]

11. welcome my people

to the bush crime cyndicate's ultimate goal 100% privitation of goverment, can you say Omni Consumer Products (watch robocop 1-3 sometime)

[papau]

12. Social Security has ended? - Internal Debt to SS not worth reporting?

Guess when folks say theft of the payroll tax to fund tax cuts for the rich, they had it right.

Funny how the media does not report the implication of Bush beginning "external Debt reporting" - with no National Debt reported.