In 1989 the first debt clock was set up on sixth avenue in new York and then a new one was manufactured in 2004, with 13 spaces for numbers, up to a trillion dollars, however in 2008 the national debt level owed by the government exceeded $9,999,999,999 meaning it needed a new panel to be implemented as can be seen above. The current US national debt is 23.18 trillion dollars growing by 1 trillion each year, the highest in the world by far. It seems like the question must be asked, how did it get this bad, and what’s being done about this?
How did this happen?
There are five main causes of US national debt. The first is federal budget deficits, presidential policies that result in too much money being spent and having to borrow more to fund these policies such as tax cuts or large expenditures such as war. Others are other countries, countries like Japan and China buying treasuries to keep their own currencies low compared to the dollar so that the US will keep buying their exports, the debt ceiling, the fact that congress has raised the debt ceiling 14 times since 2001, rendering it practically useless. Another is low US interest rates, as other countries buy government bonds as their confident the US will pay them back which the US encourages in order to keep their interest rates low and lastly social security trust fund, presidents borrow from this fund to finance their policies, however this money should have been used to finance retired baby-boomers from whom the money was gained through tax, eventually this money will have to be paid back to the fund.
What’s being done?
Unfortunately, not much is actually being done, with multiple solutions being rejected by congress as it would slow economic growth. Some solutions are to cut government spending, raise taxes and lastly is to boost GDP at a faster rate than the rise in debt, all of which the different political parties either disagree on a way of enacting or simply don’t agree with as a whole.
If you wish to read more on this, this website covers it in more detail https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-the-national-debt-4031393
And if you wish to view US national debt in real time, this website covers the US as well other countries https://www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html