What does a trillion dollars look like?

[faceless]

[luke]

so i could probably store 1 billion dollars in my flat, although i'd have to crawl over them to get from room to room.

i saw this article earlier on where that 14 trillion dollars america owes is actually owed to

Who Owns America? Hint: It's not China
A close-up look at who holds America's debt.

Truth is elusive. But it's a good thing we have math.

Our friends at Business Insider know this, and put those two principles to work today in this excellent and highly informative little slideshow, made even more timely by the ongoing talks in Washington, D.C. aimed at staving off a U.S. debt default.

Here's the big idea:

Many people — politicians and pundits alike — prattle on that China and, to a lesser extent Japan, own most of America's $14.3 trillion in government debt.

But there's one little problem with that conventional wisdom: it's just not true. While the Chinese, Japanese and plenty of other foreigners own substantial amounts, it's really Americans who hold most of America's debt.

Here's a quick and fascinating breakdown by total amount held and percentage of total U.S. debt, according to Business Insider:

Hong Kong: $121.9 billion (0.9 percent)
Caribbean banking centers: $148.3 (1 percent)
Taiwan: $153.4 billion (1.1 percent)
Brazil: $211.4 billion (1.5 percent)
Oil exporting countries: $229.8 billion (1.6 percent)
Mutual funds: $300.5 billion (2 percent)
Commercial banks: $301.8 billion (2.1 percent)
State, local and federal retirement funds: $320.9 billion (2.2 percent)
Money market mutual funds: $337.7 billion (2.4 percent)
United Kingdom: $346.5 billion (2.4 percent)
Private pension funds: $504.7 billion (3.5 percent)
State and local governments: $506.1 billion (3.5 percent)
Japan: $912.4 billion (6.4 percent)
U.S. households: $959.4 billion (6.6 percent)
China: $1.16 trillion (8 percent)
The U.S. Treasury: $1.63 trillion (11.3 percent)
Social Security trust fund: $2.67 trillion (19 percent)

So America owes foreigners about $4.5 trillion in debt. But America owes America $9.8 trillion.

[faceless]

That Social Security figure is nonsense because the phrase indicates that it's for the unemployed, etc. In actuality, it's the redistribution of the wealth from the government to the middle class people who run the offices and NGOs, not the people who actually need help.

[major.tom]

Impassioned and not far off the mark, imo.

[major.tom]

A pretty facile article appeared on Common Dreams this morning titled Beyond Hope: Where We Go After the Budget Deal Disaster?

The best thing about it was this comment by a reader:

Posted by Goebbels sez
Aug 7 2011 - 11:58am

Hey, I was at that game!
It was weird. The red team and the blue team were both on the same side of the field. There was only one participant on the opposite bench, who vaguely resembled Bernie Sanders. But he was just a water boy.
The goalpost to the left was placed on the 50-yard line. The one on the right was out in the parking lot somewhere.
When the camera zoomed in for a close-up on the sidelines, the red and blue players appeared to be arguing vehemently with one another. But when they took the field for the final play with the clock ticking down, they raced en masse to the end zone, spiked the ball, then high-fived and turned to salute somebody up in the luxury boxes.