Money Beat

From Your Wallet to Wall Street: The Money News That Matters to You From the ABC News Business Team

« Previous | Main | Next »

National Debt Clock Out of Room

October 01, 2008 12:06 PM

Mayerowitz ABC News’ Scott Mayerowitz reports: Do you know what you'd do with $10 trillion? Probably a lot of things -- but there's one thing you can't do with it: fit it on the famous national debt clock near Times Square.

With the country's national debt -- now at $9.8 trillion -- edging dangerously close to the $10 trillion mark, the debt clock is about to be replaced. As of now, it has room for only 13 digits, not the 14 required for $10 trillion.

Ap_nat_debt_clock_081001_main

“We had thought we would have a little more time,” said Douglas Durst, whose late father Seymour B. Durst, erected the sign in 1989, “We’re rewriting the software to deal with the current economic problems and are in the process of designing a new sign that will have more digits.”

The Durst Organization, a real estate firm, plans now to add two more digits to the clock. That means the debt clock could reach $999.9 trillion before it becomes obsolete -- that’s $999,999,999,999,999 in debt or about 100 times more than we have now.

Asked if that new maximum number was correct, Durst said,  “I think that’s right. The digits get so big” that he would have to write it out to confirm.

That’s a big change from September 2000 when the clock was actually shut down,  because the national debt was actually decreasing.

“We had a big ceremony shutting it down, draping it with an American flag,  saying we hope we never have to open it up again,” Durst said.

Well, less than two years later -- in July 2002 -- the clock was restarted.

As a temporary fix, the dollar sign will soon be moved over to make room for the "1" in $10 trillion. A new sign should appear at a later date.

Given today’s financial crisis and the amount of money the government is borrowing to keep the economy afloat,  the clock is expected to quickly climb even higher.

“Everything that’s happening,” Durst said, “is completely unexpected.”

October 1, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (32)

User Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

They should put smoke (dry ice) behind the clock, to show it "smoking" from going so fast.

Posted by: Daniel | Oct 12, 2008 9:04:00 PM

I think this is the first time in my 37 years on this earth that I feel ashamed to be an American.

I tend not to read the news on the country, the economy and the war in Iraq, because it depresses me and makes me sick to my stomach.

I am not a violent man, but literally want to round all of these suit and tie guy morons, put them all in the stocks and hand out free rocks. If anyone of us normal joe's treated our jobs in such a fashion, and did not take serious matters seriously we would be fired.

The Fat cats seem to care little about what keeps them in business. Now with the bailout plan looming, these bastards only get a chance to steal more from us all. Why we haven't risen as a single nation of pissed off un happy citizens is beyond me. I can only expect that our cultural differences and ignorace of each other will only firther hinder us as a nation. Until we set aside differences and fight for what is right and fair, our "elected" (erected?) leaders and law makers will continue to allow the rich to get richer while the rest of us- the real people supporting america suffer.

Posted by: sick to my stomach | Oct 23, 2008 8:05:46 PM

Our government has become what the ancient Greek philosopher, scientist and psysician, Aristotle, feared it would: despotism.

“Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.”

A despotism is a form of government ruled by an individual or a tightly organized group of individuals. This could be a dictator, a monarch, a president and her cabinet, a royal family or a totalitarian regime.

"...And to the Republic, for which [the flag] stands....," the US declined into a democracy for many decades only to ultimately decline into its current state, a despotism.

Because "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" and where we agree "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...."

Where the power of the US government is vested in the people, "Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is the [ ] right [of the people], it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

Now that our "Form of Government [has] become[] destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

The time has come to change the regime in the US. To return to our roots as a "commonwealth" where the wealth was shared more equally than it is today and to the benefits of rule by the aristocracy, who possess both the means aand the minds to govern rather than by the elite, who have at least as much money, but not nearly enough brains.


Posted by: SadAmerican | Oct 23, 2008 8:40:53 PM

WOW..Wake up. This is a staggering number. I guest washington feels "no big deal, we'll just make more money." Be afraid, very afraid!

Posted by: wildman | Oct 24, 2008 4:34:12 AM

The Authority's here in portland oregon are protecting two Serial Killers named joan wagar and eric carlson, the Authority's gave eric carlson a new identity so joan and eric can get away with murder, eric now goes by the name Gashel and was working at Clackamas Walmart with joan wagar.
since I discovered this Eric carlson left Clackamas Walmart.
Why are they hideing a bodydouble and poisoning people.
Why did the authority's in portland oregon give joan and eric permission to poison a plasma donor?

Posted by: terry wagar | Nov 1, 2008 11:02:07 PM

You bleeding heart libs make me puke. Old story, blame it on Bush. Yes, he make many mistakes, but it takes two to tango. Lib earmarks have always been much more than Repub. By the way, some yo yo said under Clintons watch the clock stopped running. Never happened. Bill C did a pretty good job of running up the Nat Debt. Clinton also left a big mess and a recession to start GW term. The worst guy is our new boy. He has raised debt, 1.75 trillion and he has only gotten started. Wise up you clucks

Posted by: Bill | Feb 28, 2009 11:55:36 AM

More Americans Are Saying No to the National Debt!
Washington has bailed out the banks, Wall Street & their Washington special interests and much of the cost is added to the national debt to by paid by this and future generations while real estate and investments continue to fall. Find out what a growing repudiate the debt movement could mean for treasuries, the dollar, gold and mining shares.
The Campaign to Cancel the Washington National Debt By 12/22/2013 Constitutional Amendment is starting now in the U.S. See: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67594690498&ref=ts

Posted by: Ron | Mar 8, 2009 12:36:54 PM

Post a comment