thevoiceofreason2 posted an
interesting comment on Daniel Hannan's latest post:
Somebody needs to do this for the Greek economy
US financial position is as follows:-
| US tax revenues | $ 2,170,000,000,000 |
| Fed Budget | $ 3,820,000,000,000 |
| New Debt | $ 1,650,000,000,000 |
| National Debt | $14,271,000,000,000 |
| Recent budget cuts | $ 38,500,000,000 |
Now just remove 8 zeroes and pretend it is 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 |
| Total budget cuts | $ 385 |
Okay, so the US isn't yet paying credit card interest rates on its debt, and it has options that ordinary households don't (like stealing and money printing), but it's shocking nonetheless.
I haven't checked whether the figures are accurate, but they look about right, and it's a great way of presenting the problem. I'll try to find time to knock up a similar example for the UK.
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