expat_panama
Gold Member
- Apr 12, 2011
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The reason the $53T total US debt is greater than the $9.7 federal debt is because that total is the sum of the federal + household + business + foreign debt. Total household debt at $13.3 appears bigger than the $9.6T federal debt only because it includes $4.1T that households owe themselves, and the feddebt number does not include $4.6T that the federals owe the federals. Here's the latest from the Treasury Dept.'s "Debt to the Penny' site:...the $53T in debt is not a completely accurate figure. That said, would you still agree that the total amount of private debt (household and business) far exceeds that of Washington's?
Most importantly, private debt is disappearing while federal debt is exploding. The original numbers in post # 24 show that since 2008 private debt's fallen $800B while federal debt's skyrocketed $3,200B.