Economy - Debt Clock

The Skeptical Optimist has upgraded the Debt Clock.

It now features both the previously displayed Total Government Debt and its ratio to GDP, and now includes the Total Public Debt (the debt held by US citizens, as well as foreign citizens and geovernments) without the intergovernmental debt, (otherwise know as the theoretical Social Security Trust Fund), and its ratio to GDP as well.

As the man himself puts it:

"Why add the extra numbers? Simply to help clarify the debate. Most politicians and journalists like to trumpet the total debt ($8.6 trillion) in their headlines and speeches. Many economists, on the other hand, argue that the important number is not total debt (including intragovernmental), but publicly-held debt—partly because that’s the number on which the government pays out “net interest.” "

He also notes, for the record, that the debt ratio for the second number, the publicly-held debt ratio, is actually running backwards as the expanding economy and increasing government tax receipts makes it easier to pay the interest burden. The first number is increasing, but quite slowly. His calculations show the budget balancing (on a 12 month rolling basis) in summer 2008, others are calculating it in Q1 2009.