Posted on 10/30/2007 11:58:13 AM PDT by BGHater
Economists scour the US to find out why we're more in debt than the Department of Commerce says we are.
Like most people, economists love a mystery – especially if it involves not a missing person but a missing $2.9 trillion in United States debt.
That's $2.9 with 11 zeros after it.
Some words of explanation: Every quarter the Department of Commerce comes up with the US "International Investment Position." At the end of 2006, for instance, the US had a net negative position – by this measurement of international assets and liabilities – of $2.6 trillion. In other words, the country is by far the world's biggest debtor nation.
A quarter century ago, the US was the world's largest creditor nation.
The economists at Commerce count American-owned private assets in foreign nations (plants, equipment, retail outfits, property, corporate stocks and bonds, etc.), US official international reserves (gold, special drawing rights, foreign currencies), and other US assets abroad. The measurements get complicated. Then these economists count what foreigners own of American assets, looking at the same list of assets.
Subtracting the value of American international assets from what foreigners own of American assets, they come up with how much Americans are in debt to other nations and their peoples.
But if you look at the current account of the US balance of payments, which measures primarily the balance of trade, and also flows of interest and dividends, foreign aid, and other international transfers, the US should be far deeper in hock – $2.9 trillion more over the years from 1990 through 2006 than the official $2.6 trillion. Every month, the Commerce Department has reported huge deficits in trade and the broader current account. ---Snip--
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Drat! I thought I could get away with it. I’ll put it back ...
OK, folks, lets's try exactly that:
$2.9 followed by 11 zeroes:
$2.900000000000
Hmmm. Looks like a tad short of three bucks to me.
If they find the $2.6 trillion they should send it over to me for safe keeping. You can bet that I won’t misplace it.
Better check out the couch.
Check in Murtha’s mattress.
A $trillion here, a $trillion there. Pretty soon it adds up to real money.
I'd be darn careful with a billionth of that amount.
Gotta be my wife (aka “The War Dept.”). She went through about $6 trillion last year, but I’m only missing $3.1 trillion.
Shoes or purses? You gotta adjust your budget. Try a veto?
Sounds like the folks at the Monitor need to retake either remedial mathematics or actual courses in copy editing and proper English grammar.
It’s called graft.
Ten cents short in fact, with a high degree of scientific accuracy.
Lol!!!
I'm sure we'll be forgiven the debt, just as we've forgiven trillions in debts to us from poorer nations.
/s>
No, really it came in the mail. I thought it was just a clerical error in my tax return. I was going to return it (if the government asked). Or it could have been a government program to help the handicap (I’m bald. A true victim)
Or as they say in Washington “ a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up!”
Somebody post the U.S.S Odessy from Stargate...that’s where the cash went...
As Yoda would say.
“To build those space battle cruisers, expensive it is...hmmmm”
Or Jefferson's freezer.
That went over the cliff, same as American leadership in the past 25 years.
More evidence the U.S. government should be dramatically slashed and reduced in size before they're policies and incompetence completely bankrupt the country.
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