America Owes a Massive Pile of Money - Literally

The United States owes a huge pile of money to itself, its citizens, mutual funds, pension funds and the entire world.

As of this second, the exact amount that the United States owes (current outstanding public debt) is $14,345,512,216,989.03. That's $14.34 trillion.

Of this amount, $9.7 trillion is in the form of "public debt" (money owed to investors, pension funds, mutual funds, foreign governments, etc), while the remaining $4.6 trillion consists of "intragovernmental holdings" (money that is owed to the Social Security fund, etc).

Now this $14.34 trillion is a big pile of money. It's so big, in fact, that many people have trouble conceptualizing just how much money it is.

Yesterday, Reuters released an article titled "Pile of debt would stretch beyond stratosphere". The article is equal parts humorous and depressing.

According to the article, if you piled up $1,000 bills, you would have a stack of money over 900 miles tall before you got to $14.34 trillion.

If you piled up $1 bills, "the pile would reach to the moon and back TWICE".

The Reuters article also notes that:

-the US government could buy each and every one of its citizens an Apple iPad every month with the money that it has to borrow on a monthly basis ($125 billion)

-the total net worth of Bill Gates would fund the US government's deficit spending for 15 days

-a stack of dimes equivalent to what the US government borrows per day ($4 billion) would "wrap all the way around the Earth with change to spare"

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The US government literally owes a massive mountain of money.

Source: Reuters.com - Pile of debt would stretch beyond stratosphere

Filed under: General Knowledge