Images of Debt

"Calamity n. A more than commonly plain and unmistakable reminder that the affairs of this life are not of our own ordering." - Ambrose Bierce

Now I normally do not use other people's work or images to make my point but these are so powerful that I thought you would enjoy seeing them.  Below each is a brief commentary. The point of the matter is that until this mountain of debt starts to shrink there is trouble ahead.  Combine this with the massive load of sovereign debt in Europe and other parts of the world and you can understand why the chances of a global soft landing are minimal.  Remember that these debt levels continue to rise each and every day.  You can learn more about how and why this happened by reading Ellen Brown's "THE WEB OF DEBT".


One Hundred Dollars - $100

The most counterfeited money denomination in the world. Keeps the world moving.

Ten Thousand Dollars - $10,000

Enough for a great vacation or to buy a used car. Approximately one year of work for the average human on earth.

One Million Dollars - $1,000,000

Not as big of a pile as you thought, huh? Still this is 92 years of work for the average human on earth.

One Hundred Million Dollars - $100,000,000

Plenty to go around for everyone. Fits nicely on a standard sized pallet.

One Billion Dollars $1,000,000,000

You will need some help when robbing the bank. Now we are getting serious!

One Trillion Dollars - $1,000,000,000,000

When the U.S government speaks about a 1.7 trillion deficit - this is the volumes of cash the U.S. Government borrowed in 2010 to run itself. Keep in mind it is double stacked pallets of $100 million dollars each, full of $100 dollar bills. You are going to need a lot of trucks to freight this around.

If you spent $1 million a day since Jesus was born, you would have not spent $1 trillion by now...but ~$700 billion - same amount the banks got during bailout.

Comparison of $1,000,000,000,000 dollars to a standard-sized American Football field and European Football field.  Say hello to the Boeing 747-400 transcontinental airliner that's hiding on the right. This was until recently the biggest passenger plane in the world.

15 Trillion Dollars - 15,000,000,000,000

Unless the U.S. government fixes the budget, US national debt (credit bill) will top 15 trillion by Christmas 2011.  The Statue of Liberty seems rather worried as United States national debt passes 20% of the entire world's combined GDP (Gross Domestic Product). In 2011 the National Debt will exceed 100% of GDP, and venture into the 100%+ debt-to-GDP ratio that the European PIIGS have (bankrupting nations).

114.5 Trillion Dollars - 114,500,000,000,000

This is the total US unfunded liabilities. To the right you can see the pillar of cold hard $100 bills that dwarfs the WTC & Empire State Building - both at one point world's tallest buildings. If you look carefully you can see the Statue of Liberty.

The 114.5 Trillion dollar super-skyscraper is the amount of money the U.S. Government knows it does not have to fully fund the Medicare, Medicare Prescription Drug Programme, Social Security, Military and civil servant pensions. It is the money USA knows it will not have to pay all its bills.

If you live in USA this is also your personal credit card bill; you are responsible along with everyone else to pay this back. The citizens of USA created the U.S. Government to serve them, this is what the U.S. Government has done while serving The People.

The unfunded liability is calculated on current tax and funding inputs, and future demographic shifts in US Population.

Note: On the above 114.5T image the size of the base of the money pile is half a trillion, not 1T as on 15T image. The height is double. This was done to reflect the base of Empire State and WTC more closely.

With the market cratering around the world today it should be enough of an alert that you should be in cash or gold.  Once again to protect your wealth for the next few years look to http://www.fixedratedeposits.com/ as a source of excellent rates on your short term cash investments.

Source: Federal Reserve & www.USdebtclock.org - visit it to see the debt in real time and get a better grasp of this amazing number.