USA Debt
Image via Wikipedia Greece and the other debt -burdened European countries are merely the first little carriages in the derailment of the Sovereign Debt Express. A train service to nowhere. The big carriage has " USA " painted on it in red. To understand the US financial position, just remove eight zeros and pretend it's a household budget : Annual family income: $21,700 Money the family spent: $38,200 New debt on the credit card : $16,500 Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710 The US is trying to bring their budget under control. This year they implemented total budget cuts of $385. Assuming they don't spend more than they raise in taxes, it will take them 370 years to pay back this debt. The bi-partisan US Super Committee is currently discussing proposals to cut spending by $12,000 over 10 years. At $1,200 in saving per year and assuming they balance the budget, it will then take them a mere 119 years to pay back the debt. That should ...