What Did We Get For $10 Trillion?

 When GWBush II took office, the US debt was $5.7 trillion.  The date was 1/20/2001.

When BHObama II took office the US debt was $10.6 trillion.  The date was 1/20/2009.

Today the debt is $14.7 trillion.

By the time Obama II finishes his first term on January 20, 2013 the debt will be over $15.7 trillion.

That means during a 12 year period, the US debt will have risen by at least $10 trillion.

Here is what ten trillion dollars looks like in figures:

$10,000,000,000,000.00

It doesn’t mean much to see it like that other than it represents a lot of money and it contains 13 zeros before the decimal point.    We have tried to think of ways to bring the number into perspective.   For example, as of year end 2010, the market value of the all the companies on the China stock exchange was $4.5 trillion.  Japan was $3.8 trillion.  In other words we could have bought and owned the better part of all the companies traded on the Japan and China stock exchanges; owned their profits and dividends and still had $1.7 trillion left over. 

Here's one other way of looking at ten trillion dollars.  It is estimated that since the beginning of time, all the gold ever mined would total 165,000 tonnes.  A tonne is about 2,200 pounds.  At its current value of approximately $1,750.00 per ounce, all the gold ever mined would be worth about:

$ 10,164,000,000,000.00

In other words the debt accumulated during the Bush II eight years of presidency and the Obama II four years of presidency is about the current value of all the gold ever mined in the world at the very high recent price of $1,750.00 per ounce!  Now that is a startling fact.  Source:  Wikipedia.  (By the way, we would have bought a lot of that gold at much lower prices.)

What do we have to show for this expenditure?  Well, that is a question that is rather unanswerable.  The two fellows named might suggest it is the price of keeping America safe and feeding, housing and employing some portion of the citizenry.  Others might suggest very little.  You can answer for yourself.  All this essayist would suggest is that some would rather have all the gold ever mined setting in the vaults in Ft. Knox, Kentucky or own the Chinese and Japanese companies that are beating the pants off US companies.  Please remember that this 12 year expenditure spree just began on January 20, 2001.  It cannot end until January 20, 2013 unless the house of representatives starts saying no and saying it daily, weekly and monthly for the next 16 months.  That will not happen.

This essay documents the debt accumulated under Bush II ($4.9 trillion over eight years) and the debt that will be accumulated under Obama II (at least $5.1 trillion over four years.)   These are simple facts.  We then related that debt accumulation to two other simple facts - value of all the gold mined and value of the stocks traded on two foreign exchanges.  Pay attention and see how many politicians running for office will talk about these simple facts.  How many will take ownership; responsibility for their role in the creation of this debt?  How many might even consider that a good investing plan would serve America better than just a spending plan?

How can one judge the two men who have signed the spending/borrowing bills that produced this debt?  It is way beyond the scope of these pages to judge any man.  But it is more than obvious to state that America would have been better off if neither of these men had ever run for the office of president nor had either sought or attained reelection after their first term in office.  Ditto for many of the members of congress.

A democratic republic that does not set limits on the spending and debt accumulation of its elected officials is a sham.