Not surprising in the least. Let's tally up some of the shenanigans that got the US in this predicament.

1. Out spending the rest of the world in military/defense spending.

2. Having a massive imbalance of trade and import to export ratio

3. Quantitative easing where the FED prints money out of thin air to keep banks "solvent"

4. Speaking of the FED aka The Federal Reserve. Having the US Treasury borrow money from a privately controlled bank at interest. ( MAJOR FAIL)

5. Having the same executives of a, once, major bank, Goldman Sachs, have top positions in the FED, US Treasury.

6. A crumbling infrastructure caused by budget woes due to too much money being allocated to fight proxy wars in which we have no business fighting. With as much money that is spent on war, there is absolutely no reason why the US does not have an interstate high speed railway system like the interstate road system in place.

7. An education system that is failing in general. Actually the entire attitude towards education, needs an overhaul in this country. People, in general, are too concerned with being entertained instead of educated.

I could go on and on, but you should get the gist of it. IMHO the only thing keeping the dollar afloat is the T-Bills that were sold to OPEC. Oil is the only thing that is giving the Greenback any value because it is traded in Dollars. The reserve currency helps out some, but it could be replaced tomorrow.

The solution is to pull out of these proxy wars, shut down a lot of unnecessary bases around the globe that we no longer need (easier said than done), rebuild our infrastructure, shore up our defenses within the mainland, and states / commonwealths abroad.

Originally posted by anon72
And ATSers with some $$$ knowledge able to opine on this? IS is THAT BAD? or "don't worry about it... move along".

I say. It's THAT BAD.

Well, I don’t claim to have vast knowledge of economics, but assuming the people in charge of the US economy aren’t total idiots, then only one thing makes sense: it doesn’t matter.

I believe that the US has no intention of making good on it’s debts. We’re trading worthless paper and empty promises for tangible assets and resources. It makes sense if the US is planning for a catastrophic event where fiat currencies will be meaningless. If we knew such an event was coming, it would make sense to use our military to steal the resources of other countries, like oil, while not using our own. That way, we can drill for oil in our own country after we have used up everyone else’s, and they will be left with worthless paper. You can bet we won’t take their paper for our resources, and with no oil, they wouldn’t be able to use military forces against us.

But I don’t even think it would come to that. Evidence suggests that the US is spending like crazy to construct deep underground military bases (DUMBs). It seems they are preparing for a large-scale climatic event that will decimate the human population. In an event like that, what difference would a national debt make? All they have to do is maintain the illusion that everything is OK, until it’s too late.

This was all set up

Test them

how
see if they are loving
how
see if they go for the malice
how
war how
trickery
how now I see
look they are upset
yes
whats next
???
the test
yes
will they destroy "others"
hope not
me too
oh no they are falling for it
for what
THAT
OH NOZ OMG
they fell for it
look GOD bless ??? and not them
LOOK wow
wow indeed
Are they to feel are only blessed
how unfair
YES
SO whats next
EVOL GAME
to take their money
HOW
!WAR!
no not that again member the ancients fell for that they have had to matured
I HOPE
LOOK WAR1
and 2 and3
HOW can they not see their money is paying for it
THEY ARE MIND CLOSED WITH HATE SO they cannot see
SAD
indeed
WOW
look at their money
YUP
wow
But how do they??
SHHHHHH
DOMINO effect for new world
new world test ARE THEY WORTHY
LOOK AT THE WARS
THE BLOOD
ALL THAT MONEY COULD OF HELPED 3RD WORLD COUNTRIES
THE IRONY
YES

NEXT move REMAINING SUPER POWERS -ASIA destabilization RUSSIA/CHINA

HOW

deep deep 3

BE WELL

Thanks, OP.

A few things to keep in mind: The article is not about "the economy in general" but a very specific metric: current account balance. The current account balance is, roughly speaking:

(total value of imports + returns on investments abroad) - (total value of exports)
within a certain period.

What does this tell us? "If this figure is positive, it measures the portion of a country's saving invested abroad; if negative, the portion of domestic investment financed by foreigners' savings."(econ text)

It's a little more complex than that, but not that much more complex. Keep in mind that 1) government debt and 2) private debt are different things and when people about "the national debt" they are often playing fast and loose with this distinction, blurring the two categories for various purposes to manipulate public opinion and make one thing look like another. Very sneaky.

Current account balance is not about government debt. This is why a country like Japan is ranked so high on that list, despite its massive public debt. Keep this in mind when evaluating these stats.

Not trying to downplay the news, by any means, but its important to keep everything in perspective.

THEY STILL HAVE THOSE THO
lol I know they can still manage with THOSE power manage
I SEE so money no matters more less
NOPE not as long as they got those
oh yea THOSE ARE WORTH ALOT
very much so

SO where is the king to reign from

PROCESSING...................

Gosh, this couldn't be intentional now, could it?
No Conspiracy here - our government would never sell us out.
The real question is why do they want to destroy America?

Isn't it ironic that every country is in debt?
To WHO exactly?
Find that out and you win the prize.

The country maybe beyond broke, but the bankers and financial industry still sound like they are doing all right. There are some problems with all these toxic assets floating around and a lot of moves going on for the tax payers to pick up the bill. Unfortunately most of them are pretty broke as well so there is still a chance some of these super rich will actually have to pay for their crimes.

The problems behind this have been going on for a while with the whole structure of the economy to blame. A lack of oversight, deregulation, unaddressed conflicts of interest, centralised power, limited accountability, no transparency. Money was suppose to be about distribution of resources, instead it has become one big game of monopoly with the biggest thief taking all as everything else falls apart.

Subtract the two numbers would give you net and you would get a more interesting number and place holders. Then per capita would make the figures more respectable since debt and revenue are created by people and divided by people would make more realistic of a number for the individual in each country.


Just a note, riddle me this: How can the European Union be on the same list as Germany, France, Italy etc. when they are the same, so this is counting money twice, not good math.......could I add "Middle East" or "Pan-Asia" to get a sense of the different size of oranges or comparing apples and one orange is ok for CIA.

I would agree with the last chart more using terms of currency instead of country, without looking at the CIA magic formula of course, I guess I am picky today. By adding currency by the way would make the dollar look crazier than you could imagine since most of the world is pegged to the dollar or use the dollar as the default currency so all those countries debt is in dollar. Really the dollar bill is debt, printed right there on it for all to see, so then you would have to add them all up, please, take a deep breath and think about this a little bit folks.

Maybe its more of the same BS CIA we know and love, will the CIA haters take their word now and not at any other time, say, like 9/11, WMDs, USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy ect.....