The U.S. public debt, commonly called the national debt or the gross federal debt, is the amount of money owed by the United States federal government. This does not include the money owed by states, corporations, or individuals. As of December 2005, the total government debt is approximately $8.1 trillion ($8,100,000,000,000, or in scientific notation $8.1×10¹²). Although it is an apparently gigantic figure, the debt to gross domestic product ratio is around 2:3 which is a median figure amongst many nations. The U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1789 by a constitutional convention, sets down the basic framework of American government in its seven articles. ... A U.S. state is any one of the fifty states (four of which officially favor the term commonwealth) which, together with the District of Columbia and Palmyra Atoll (an uninhabited incorporated unorganized territory), form the United States of America. ... A corporation is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a Civil law systems may refer to corporations as moral persons; they may also go by the name AS (anonymous society) or something similar, depending on language (see below). ... Ongoing events • 2005 Kuomintang visits to Mainland • Bill C-38 (Canada gay marriage) • German Visa Affair 2005 • Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan • Fuel prices • Election of OAS Secretary General • Stanislav Gross scandal in Czech republic Upcoming events Deaths in May May 3: Jagjit Singh Aurora May 3: Don Canham May... Government debt (public debt, national debt) is money owed by government, at any level (central government or federal government, municipal government, local government). ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a calculation method in national accounting (see Measures of national income and output) is defined as the total value of final goods and services produced within a countrys borders in a year, regardless of ownership. ...

A division of the United States Treasury Department known as the Bureau of the Public Debt calculates the amount of money owed by the national government on a daily basis. The United States Department of the Treasury is a Cabinet department, a treasury, of the United States government established by an Act of U.S. Congress in 1789 to manage the revenue of the United States government. ... The Bureau of Public Debt is an agency of the Treasury Department, located in Parkersburg, West Virginia, that borrows money needed to operate the Federal Government and accounts for the resulting debt. ...

Structure of the debt

The Bureau of the Public Debt divides the national debt into two main categories: debt held by the public, and intragovernmental holdings. Intragovernmental debt includes money for government trust funds, such as pension plans and the debt for social security, which is about $1.7 trillion as of May 2005. Overall, intragovernmental holdings account for over $3.1 trillion of the total debt at this time. In common law legal systems, a trust is a relationship in which a person or entity (the trustee) has legal control over certain property (the trust property or trust corpus), but is bound by a fiduciary duty to exercise that legal control for the benefit of someone else (the beneficiary... The examples and perspective in this article do not represent a worldwide view. ... For specific national programs, see Social Security (United States), National insurance (UK), Social Security (Sweden) Social security mainly refers to a field of social welfare concerned with social protection, or protection against socially recognized needs, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment, families with children and others. ...

The remaining $4.6 trillion or so has been purchased by the public, including foreign entities. This largely comes from the issuance of US Treasury securities. Nearly half ($2.2 trillion) is composed of Treasury notes (aka T-notes), while T-bills and T-bonds (including savings bonds) cover most of the remaining public portion of the debt. Bonds sold for infrastructure projects are also part of the national debt. Treasury Securities are bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury, and sold by the Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC. They are the debt finance instruments of the Federal government, and are often referred to as treasuries. ...

It is common for individual Americans and businesses to buy bonds and other securities, though much of the debt is now held overseas. At the end of 2004, foreign holdings of Treasury debt were $1,886 billion, which was 44 percent of the total debt held by the public. Foreign central banks owned 64 percent of the Federal debt held by foreign residents; private investors owned nearly all the rest (figures are from the Analytical Perspectives of the 2006 U.S. Budget, page 257).

The country holding by far the most debt is Japan which held $1.2 trillion at the end of March, 2005. In recent years the People's Republic of China has also become a major holder of Treasury debt, holding $223.5 billion at that time.

Calculating the debt

The Bureau of the Public Debt keeps track of money owed by the U.S. government on a daily basis, also issuing monthly and yearly reports. While the numbers provided by the bureau are the most-commonly used, some economists prefer to use other methods and include additional debts. An economist is someone who studies Economics. ...

There is a question among economists in the United States as to whether the debt held by the 50 individual states should be counted as part of the national debt. Some economists include sums related to bills the government must pay for goods and services it has contracted for in the current fiscal year. Good (accounting) - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Services are: plural of service Tertiary sector of industry IRC services Web services the name of a first-class cricket team in India This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

The debt is usually viewed as an absolute number, but it can also be measured as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP). By this measure, the United States is merely an average nation. The economy of Japan could be more worrisome, as the country has a debt of about 165% of its GDP. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a calculation method in national accounting (see Measures of national income and output) is defined as the total value of final goods and services produced within a countrys borders in a year, regardless of ownership. ... // Economic Profile Japans industrialized, free-market economy is the worlds fourth-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) after the United States, China and recently India and second-largest by market exchange rates. ...

Another method is to measure by the amount payable in any given year. For example, much of the debt is payable in 10, 20, or 30 years—much like a mortgage. There is debate about how such debt should be represented. Sometimes, alternative measures are used by individuals to support their own political arguments. A mortgage is a method of using property as security for the payment of a debt. ...

Projecting the future debt

Tracking current levels of debt is a complex but rather straightforward process. Making future projections is much more difficult for a number of reasons. For example, the Bush Administration projected that there would be a $1.288 trillion surplus from 2001 through 2004 in the 2002 U.S. Budget. In the 2005 Mid-Session Review, however, this had changed to a projected deficit of $850 billion, a swing of $2.137 trillion. Table 7 in this latter document states that 49 percent of this swing was due to "economic and technical reestimates", 29 percent was due to "tax relief", and the remaining 22 percent was due to "war, homeland, and other enacted legislation". Hence, three reasons for the inaccuracy of future projections are changes in conditions (as with the unexpected recession), changes in policy (as in the tax cuts and additional spending), and the inherent inaccuracies of predicting the future.

In addition, projections between different groups will sometimes differ because they make different assumptions. For example, an August 2003 CBO document projected a $1.4 trillion deficit from 2004 through 2013. However, a joint analysis put out by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Committee for Economic Development, and the Concord Coalition a month later stated that "In projecting deficits, CBO follows mechanical “baseline” rules that do not allow it to account for the costs of any prospective tax or entitlement legislation, no matter how likely the enactment of such legislation may be". The analysis added in a proposed tax cut extension, AMT relief, prescription drug plan, and increases in defense, homeland security, international, and domestic spending. This raised the projected deficit from $1.4 trillion to $5.0 trillion. Hence, the assumptions on which the projections are based are also very important.

Despite the drawbacks of making future projections, however, a responsible government must arguably make long-run projections so it can prepare the country for future possibilities. The federal government does provide long-run budget projection in Table 13-2 on page 209 of the Analytical Perspectives of the 2006 U.S. Budget. It projects that the federal debt held by the public will reach 249 percent of GDP in 2075. This is more than double the maximum reached during World War II and nearly four times its current level. Most of this increase is due to projected increases in entitlement spending and the resulting interest on the debt. Needless to say, this projection is very troubling. However, it is worth noting that this is a projection, not a prediction. This projection assumes normal economic conditions and that government policies will follow current law. The stress of a quadrupling of the debt would likely cause one or both of these items to change.

Paying the debt

The publicly held debt of the U.S. government is simply repaid whenever securities are returned for payment. The debt cannot be paid right away, partially because many securities are issued for decades-long periods. When social security is considered part of the national debt, it can never be totally paid off.

The most common method used today to "reduce" the debt is by growing the nation's GDP. The hope is that the deficit spending that increases the debt will increase GDP by a greater amount, and thus—in relative terms, at least—the debt would decrease. This worked to great effect in the U.S. between the end of World War II and 1980, even though the debt showed a net increase in absolute value over the same period. Deficit spending is the amount by which a government, private company, or individuals spending exceeds income over a particular period of time, also called simply deficit, or budget deficit, the opposite of budget surplus. ... Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a mid-20th century conflict that engulfed much of the globe and is accepted as the largest and deadliest... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ...

The debt could also be paid down by increasing revenue through increased taxes and other fees, such as import tariffs. Over 47% of the personal income tax (but not of total tax revenue) collected in 2003 was spent on paying interest on the debt. Additionally, if it were possible to avoid incurring new debt, current revenues could be used to pay off the bonds sold and the loans taken. By U.S. law, a budget surplus must be used to pay down what the government owes, though the nation continues to issue securities. In business, revenue is the amount of money that a company actually receives from its activities, mostly from sales of products and/or services to customers. ... A tax is a compulsory charge or other levy imposed on an individual or a legal entity by a state or a functional equivalent of a state (e. ... A tariff is a tax on imported goods. ... The examples and perspective in this article do not represent a worldwide view. ... In finance, interest has three general definitions. ... Debt is that which is owed. ... A loan is a type of debt. ... A budget deficit occurs when an entity (often a government) spends more money than it takes in. ...

It is also possible to repay the debt by simply printing more money. However, this is destructive to an economy, as it results in inflation, reducing the actual worth of the national currency. If the country attempted to repay a huge amount of debt at once with this method, hyper-inflation would result, leading to a drastic reduction in the value of cash. The United States government can't actually use this method as the sole right to print money is given by the law to the Federal Reserve, the country's central bank. M3 broad money growth shows that this is indeed happening, and USA is often accused of exporting inflation. (reference needed) A 500,000,000,000 (500 billion) Serbian dinar banknote circa 1993, the largest nominal value ever officially printed in Serbia, the final result of hyperinflation. ... The government of the United States, established by the United States Constitution, is a federal republic of 50 states, a few territories and some protectorates. ... The Federal Reserve System is headquartered in the Eccles Building on Constitution Avenue in Washington, DC. The Federal Reserve System (also the Federal Reserve; informally The Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. ...

Risks

Any time money is loaned to a debtor, there is a chance it won't be repaid. These are the risks that all commercial lenders face, even lenders to nations. Lenders calculate the risk of nonpayment versus the return on the money they lend. If the U.S. is viewed as a credit risk then it will have trouble borrowing money. A commercial lender offers loans backed by hard collateral. ... Credit risk is the risk of loss due to a counterparty defaulting on a contract, or more generally the risk of loss due to some credit event. Traditionally this applied to bonds where debt holders were concerned that the counterparty to whom theyve made a loan might default on...

The U.S. issues government bonds. The bonds are then bought by investors. If the U.S. can't entice investors to buy its bonds it will have to increase the interest rate of the bonds. On December 13th, the U.S. 30 year treasury note has a rate of 5.375%. In general, the higher bond rate the greater the credit risk of the issuer, in this case the U.S. Government debt (public debt, national debt) is money owed by government, at any level (central government, federal government, national government, municipal government, local government, regional government). ... Credit risk is the risk of loss due to a counterparty defaulting on a contract, or more generally the risk of loss due to some credit event. Traditionally this applied to bonds where debt holders were concerned that the counterparty to whom theyve made a loan might default on...

National debt can be held by the citizens of the country, or by institutions outside of the country. Unlike the debt of a corporation though, a holder of the debts owed by governments can't force the government to pay the debt. This is due to national sovereignty. The word citizen may refer to: A person with a citizenship Citizen Watch Co. ... A corporation is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a Civil law systems may refer to corporations as moral persons; they may also go by the name AS (anonymous society) or something similar, depending on language (see below). ... Sovereignty is the exclusive right to exercise supreme authority over a geographic region, group of people or oneself. ...

With smaller nations, the modern financial system overseen by International Monetary Fund and World Bank, will however most likely enforce measures that resemble the Chapter 11 bankrupcy proceedings of an ill-faring private company. The nation in default makes periodic repayments. The logo of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the international organization entrusted with overseeing the global financial system by monitoring exchange rates and balance of payments, as well as offering technical and financial assistance when asked. ... Logo of the World Bank The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, in Romance languages: BIRD), better known as the World Bank, is an international organization whose original mission was to finance the reconstruction of nations devastated by WWII. Now, its mission has expanded to fight poverty by means... Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code governs the process of reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. ... Notice of closure stuck on the door of a computer store the day after its parent company, Granville Technology Group Ltd, declared bankruptcy (strictly, administration - see text) in the UK. Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay their creditors. ...

Consequences of foreign ownership of U.S. debt

U.S. Treasury statistics indicate that, at the end of 2004, foreigners held 44 percent of federal debt held by the public. [1] About 64% of that 44% was held by the central banks of other countries. A large portion was held by the central banks of Japan and China. This exposes the United States to potential financial or political risk that either bank will stop buying Treasury securities—or start selling them heavily. In fact, the debt held by Japan reached a maximum in August of 2004 and has fallen nearly 3 percent since then. [2] However, even if both banks cease to buy U.S. treasuries, the U.S. could easily find new buyers by raising the interest rates they pay. Risk is the potential harm that may arise from some present process or from some future event. ...

Some who study geopolitics and creditary economics are greatly concerned by this. With strong financial ties, others believe that there is an incentive for the U.S. to be protective of the respective nations. Geopolitics analyses politics, history and social science with reference to geography. ... Creditary economics is a broad and inclusive term for all theories of economics and political economy that drastically de-emphasize or deny altogether a role for debt and assumptions of fixed yield for such financial capital instruments. ...

For instance, military strategist Thomas Barnett believes that the world's nations are essentially paying the United States to be the world's policeman. This is in the interest of world's nations as long as the world without stable U.S. political and military power is less desirable than one stabilized by the single superpower. This can be compared with shop owners paying for the "protection" of mafia in an area fallen in to lawlessness. There is a risk that military confrontations could occur between the U.S. and its debtors if the country cannot repay the debts, though most analysts believe that any confrontations would be entirely economic. The likelihood of any military confrontations directed against the U.S. is diminished by the fact that the U.S. military power is overwhelming. Military strategy in the Waterloo campaign Military strategy is a collective name for planning the conduct of warfare. ... Thomas P.M. Barnett Dr. Thomas P.M. Barnett is a leading American military strategist. ... For the band, see The Police. ... The contents of the History_of_the_Mafia article were merged into this article and now redirects here. ...

A risk of even greater magnitude is the possibility that OPEC will begin to price petroleum in Euros, as Saddam Hussein began to do in 1998—until this decision was reversed by the 2003 invasion of Iraq. According to economist Henry K. Liu, the "float" achieved by the necessity of all industrial nations needing to keep a U.S. dollar reserve to hedge against rising prices of oil, is also numbered in trillions of dollars. A shift to a different reserve currency that would float as well, would send those saved dollars back to U.S. shores to be redeemed for goods. This would induce inflation, a rise in interest rates, and increases in bankruptcy as obligations and assets are called in, to increase flow of cash or goods to the offshore buyers redeeming dollars. Logo The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is made up of Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela; since 1965, its international headquarters have been in Vienna, Austria. ... Nodding donkey pumping an oil well near Sarnia, Ontario Petroleum (from Greek petra – rock and oleum – oil), crude oil, sometimes colloquially called black gold, is a thick, dark brown or greenish liquid. ... The euro (symbol: €; banking code: EUR) is the currency of twelve European Union member states: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain, collectively known as the Eurozone. ... Wikinews has news related to this article: Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, (Arabic: صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي), born April 28, 1937 , was President of Iraq from 1979 until his removal and capture after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... Combatants United States, United Kingdom, other nations Iraq Commanders U.S commander Saddam Hussien Strength Casualties The 2003 Invasion of Iraq began on March 20 comprising United States and United Kingdom forces (98%), and several other nations. ... An economist is someone who studies Economics. ... An interest rate is the price a borrower pays for the use of money he does not own, and the return a lender receives for deferring his consumption, by lending to the borrower. ... In business and accounting an asset is anything owned which can produce future economic benefit, whether in possession or by right to take possession, by a person or a group acting together, e. ...

The impact of this would likely be to make U.S. bonds have to raise rates to appeal to investors in a thinner market—which would trigger inflation all over the industrialized world, given the central position the U.S. holds in it. This would introduce the possibility of a round of hyper-inflation that could break the capacity of states to react. This would be a larger scale repeat of the George Soros attack on the British Pound Sterling that forced Britain out of the European Union fixed-rate exchange system. George Soros George Soros (born August 12, 1930 in Budapest, Hungary as Schwartz György) is a financial speculator, stock investor, philanthropist, and liberal political activist and donor. ... The pound sterling is the official currency of the United Kingdom (UK). ...

Every dollar of increased U.S. public debt, and every rise in interest rates, and every shift in pricing of a major industrial commodity, decreases the cushion available, and increases the potential that the U.S. might default on its own bonds. This would likely mean that U.S. dollar savings would be worth drastically less. Far-fetched as this seems, it happened in Argentina when International Monetary Fund-required measures forced an economic austerity regime that was widely blamed by economists as leading to a meltdown in its currency. The word commodity is a term with distinct meanings in business and in Marxian political economy. ... The logo of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the international organization entrusted with overseeing the global financial system by monitoring exchange rates and balance of payments, as well as offering technical and financial assistance when asked. ...

Far more serious than either of these questions, which involve "only money", is the question of the triple bottom line which is the financial, social and natural debt created by exploiting systems with an internal integrity, drawing on them as if they were free. Financial capital is not, in general, a good guide to social or natural capital flows, and many economists claim it is a contrary—even inherently contrary—process. See uneconomic growth for this discussion in detail. Money Money is any marketable good or token used by a society as a store of value, a medium of exchange, and a unit of account. ... The triple bottom line captures an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organizational (and societal) success - economic, environmental and social. ... Financial capital, or economic capital, is any liquid medium or mechanism that represents wealth, or other styles of capital. ... Social capital is a socio-economic concept with a variety of inter-related definitions, based on the value of social networks. ... Natural capital refers to the mineral, plant, and animal formations of the Earths biosphere when viewed as a means of production of oxygen, water filter, erosion preventer, or provider of other natural services. ... Integrity comprises the personal inner sense of wholeness deriving from honesty and consistent uprightness of character. ... Uneconomic growth, in welfare economics, human development theory and some forms of ecological economics, is economic growth which reflects or creates a decline in human well-being. ...

A serious failure in accountability for instance causes loss of social capital which decreases trust essential to commerce and polity, while loss of natural capital causes a reduction in nature's services (such as irrigation or flood control) that must then be made up for by human effort, stressing the human economy. There are no economists who claim that the financial debt or deficit is actually independent of these factors, and very few who claim that economic growth indicators or measures of national income work well enough to rely on them utterly. Accountability has several meanings. ... Look up trust in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Commerce is the trading of something of value between two entities. ... Polity is a general term that refers to political organization of a group. ... Natural capital refers to the mineral, plant, and animal formations of the Earths biosphere when viewed as a means of production of oxygen, water filter, erosion preventer, or provider of other natural services. ... Natures services is an umbrella term for the ways in which nature benefits humans, particularly those benefits that can be measured in economic terms. ... This is an alphabetical list of well-known economists. ... Accumulated GDP growth for various countries. ... Measures of national income and output are used in economics to estimate the value of goods and services produced in an economy. ...

Thus, the ultimate political risk: collapse of an entire polity, which happened for instance in the collapse of the Soviet Union, or rise of a wholly different political economy, as happened after hyper-inflation in Weimar Germany, with the rise of Nazism. As this is in no state's interest (even China and Iran would suffer in the ensuing turmoil), it is likely that the world's nations are ready to do their utmost to back U.S. government debt. The rise of Gorbachev Although reform stalled between 1964–1982, the generational shift gave new momentum for reform. ... Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. ... The period of German history from 1919 to 1933 is known as the Weimar Republic (in German Weimarer Republik). It is named after the city of Weimar, where a national assembly convened to produce a new constitution after the German monarchy was abolished following the nations defeat in World... The term National Socialism has been used in self-description by a number of different political groups and ideologies, some of which have no connection with the Nazis; see National socialism (disambiguation). ...

A brief history of the debt

The United States has had public debt since its inception. Debts incurred during the American Revolutionary War and under the Articles of Confederation led to the first yearly reported value of $75,463,476.52 on January 1, 1791. Over the following 45 years, the debt grew and then contracted (almost?) to zero in late 1834. On January 1, 1835, the national debt was only $33,733.05, but it quickly grew into the millions again. Combatants American Revolutionaries, France, allies British Empire, allies Commanders George Washington Comte de Rochambeau Nathanael Greene William Howe Henry Clinton Charles Cornwallis Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties {{{casualties1}}} {{{casualties2}}} The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was the military side of the American Revolution. ... The Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, commonly known as the Articles of Confederation, formed the first governing document of the United States of America. ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 1791 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1834 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1835 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

The first dramatic growth spurt of the debt occurred because of the Civil War—it was just $65 million dollars in 1860, but passed $1 billion in 1863 and ended up at $2.7 billion following the war. The debt slowly fluctuated for the rest of the century, finally growing steadily in the 1910s and early 1920s to roughly $22 billion as the country paid for involvement in World War I. The American Civil War (1861–1865) was fought in North America within the United States of America, between twenty-four mostly northern states of the Union and the Confederate States of America, a coalition of eleven southern states that declared their independence and claimed the right of secession from the... 1860 is the leap year starting on Sunday. ... 1863 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... // Events and trends The 1910s represent the culmination of European militarism which had its beginings during the second half of the 19th Century. ... Sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or primarily in North America and in Australia as the Roaring Twenties . In Europe it is sometimes refered to as the Golden Twenties. ... Clockwise from top: Trenches in frontline, a British Mark I Tank crossing a trench, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the battle of the Dardanelles, a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks and a Sopwith Camel biplane. ...

The buildup and involvement in World War II brought the debt up another order of magnitude from $43 billion in 1940 to $260 billion following the war. After this period, the debt's growth closely matched the rate of inflation until the 1980s, when it again began to skyrocket: Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a mid-20th century conflict that engulfed much of the globe and is accepted as the largest and deadliest... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The 1980s, in its most obvious sense, was the decade between 1980 and 1989. ...

1981 (MCMLXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The public debt briefly started to go down in 2000 when the country had a substantial budget surplus, but quickly started growing again after budget deficits grew large beginning in 2002. This article is about the year 2000. ...

At any given time (at least in recent decades), there is a debt ceiling in effect. If the debt grows to this ceiling level, many branches of government are shut down or only provide extremely limited service. However, the ceiling is routinely raised by passage of new laws by the United States Congress every year or so. Still, Congress has failed to act in time at least once. In 1995, the federal government closed down for six days from November 14 to November 20 due to partisan wrangling between the Congress and President Bill Clinton. Congress in Joint Session. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 14 is the 318th day of the year (319th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 47 days remaining. ... November 20 is the 324th day of the year (325th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe, III on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ...

Viewed alternately as a percentage of the GDP, the national debt rose sharply during World War II, reaching about 122% of GDP in 1946. As soon as the conflict ended, the debt began declining, reaching a postwar low of 32.6% of GDP in 1981. The debt then started rising again and peaked at 67.3% of GDP in 1996. It then dropped to 57.4% of GDP by 2001 but began rising again after congress and the George W. Bush administration implemented several tax cuts (though the economy also hit a recession at the time). In 2004, the debt reached 63.7% of GDP and is projected to continue rising, reaching 70% of GDP in 2010. It should be noted that the debt of United States on par with what it is in many other developed countries, such as Germany and France. In any case, all of the above debt figures can be found in Historical Table 7.1 of the 2006 U.S. Budget. [3] Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a mid-20th century conflict that engulfed much of the globe and is accepted as the largest and deadliest... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States. ... A recession is usually defined in macroeconomics as a fall of a countrys real Gross Domestic Product in two or more successive quarters of a year. ...

Modern presidential records

Statistics here are given in both raw numbers and in relation to the debt ratio, an expression of the federal debt as a percentage of GDP. Due to World War II, the national debt spiked to a historical peak of 121.2% of GDP in 1946.

Source for percentage debt growth: Congressional Budget Office James Earl Jimmy Carter, Jr. ... Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). ... George Herbert Walker Bush (born in Milton, Massachusetts June 12, 1924) was the 41st President of the United States (1989–1993). ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe, III on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States. ...

Formula used for percentage debt growth: (outgoing election year debt - incoming election year debt) / incoming election year debt

Debt clocks

In several cities around the United States, but most famously at Times Square in New York City, there are national debt clocks—electronic billboards which supposedly show the amount of money owed by the government. Some also attempt to show the money owed per capita or per family. There is a significant level of fluctuation day-to-day, both up and down, so any "clocks" must be continually re-set with proper values.

The famous national debt clock in New York City's Times Square was actually deactivated in 2000 when the debt began to go down. However, following large increases, the clock was reactivated a few years later. (Interestingly, some "man on the street" interviews showed that some people felt that the sign's deactivation meant that the debt had been eliminated, though it remained at roughly $5 trillion.)

Trivia

U.S. Public debt is more than ten times the amount of United States currency in circulation as of 2005, estimated to be $730 billion ($7.3 × 10¹¹).

See also

• Global debt - the "big picture"
• History of the U.S. public debt - a table containing historical debt data
• Public debt - a general discussion of the topic
• Economy of the United States - discusses US national debt and economic context
• List of public debt - list of the public debt for many nations, as a percentage of the GDP

Flows 2004 Global debt and equity underwriting reached a record $5. ... In the end of the year 2003 the overall U.S. public debt was seven trillion dollars, (in U.S. trillions). ... This page is a candidate to be copied to Wiktionary. ... The United States has the largest and one of the most technologically advanced national economies in the world, with a GDP of 12. ... This is a list of the public debt as a percentage of the GDP according to 2004 CIA factbook. ...

External links

• Bureau of the Public Debt
  • The debt to the penny and who holds it
  • Monthly statements on the debt
  • Average Interest Rates on Treasury Securities (October 2004)
• U.S. Gross National Debt Graph with Presidential terms marked.
• U.S. National Debt Clock
• Definitions and History of U.S. Government Debt The United States Public Debt, 1861 to 1975

References

• Alan Sloan (September 8, 2003). The Brainteaser of Deficit Math. Newsweek (archived version at truthout.org).