July 23, 2011

A Trillion Here, a Trillion There...

By Mike Czuchnicki
For the United States, yesterday's "a billion dollars here" is today's "a trillion dollars there."  We owe over fourteen trillion dollars -- that is a "14" followed by "000,000,000,000."  Each man, woman or child in America today owes about forty thousand dollars - their share of our national debt.  Senator Everett Dirksen was right: "eventually, it becomes a lot of money." For many, the 1950s are remembered as almost a golden age epitomized by Ozzie and Harriet living the good life.  They benefited from America's industrial might escaping WWII's devastation and returning to peacetime production; excess capacity could even go toward waging the Cold War.  Our workforce was plentiful thanks to Rosie the Riveter.  Working in innovative factories -- nourished by capital -- we converted our trove of natural resources into valuable products, sold worldwide. With less than five percent of the world population, we still produce almost a quarter of the world's...(Read Full Article)