Sam's Debt Woes

To get a real picture of the debt load here in the United States we must go beyond the publicized $12,963,000,000,000 in US national debt (which is over 90% of US GDP).

As of October 2008 the GSE debt was reported by the Federal Finance Housing Agency as $5.5 trillion (cite below) and the federal stimulus has resulted in, anywhere from $9 to $24+ trillion depending on the source. Simply adding 3 GSEs to the national debt is 125% of GDP.

http://www.fhfa.gov/webfiles/216/WHF121008webversion.pdf

Favorite Hardly Pronounceable Bailout Acronyms: TARP, TALF, TAF, TLGP, CPFF, MMIF, TSLF

Favorite Bailout Fact: all "bailouts" before 2008 totaled under $350 billion, including $293.3 billion for the Savings and Loan debacle.


State debts are above $1.1 trillion (with over 20 at risk of default), local debt over $1.9 trillion and unfunded liabilities to Social Security, Medicare and Prescription Drugs over $108 trillion.

On top of the revenue the US government must raise to seem sustainable, the end debtor or in this case the US citizenry, has over $16 trillion in personal mortgage, credit card and car loan debt to pay down.

An increase in rates will make this debt a major challenge to service with the Treasury redeeming record amounts of bills (just shy of $600 billion in April), not to mention the large budget deficits projected for at least a decade by the Congressional Budget Office. I leave you with a quote from the US Treasury:

Such rapid growth in the Government’s deficit and resulting debt would create financial sector instability, increasing risk and uncertainty across many sectors of the U.S. economy. Avoiding the economic consequences of this fiscal path will require action to bring program expenditures and Government resources in balance. Delays in addressing this critical issue could increase the magnitude of the changes needed and place a greater burden on future generations.

http://fms.treas.gov/fr/08frusg/08frusg.pdf


Source for Bailout costs: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aY0tX8UysIaM

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/02/04/business/20090205-bailout-totals-graphic.html