United States National Debt?

Weird...
From 2008 (just listen to first 45 seconds)


an article over the Debt raised by G.W. Bush by cbs news
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500803_162-4486228-500803.html

an article over the Debt raised by Obama by cbs news in 2010
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20019931-503544.html

the current debt
http://www.usdebtclock.org/

was Clinton right?

It might sound like I'm just joking or trolling but I truly believe we need to just tell the rest of the World we have no plans on paying back the the debt and see what happens. Make the announcement and be like what now? "come at me bro" so to speak.

Eventually things will come to a head and either China (and the rest of the World) will cut us off and we'll need to become self sufficient or enter WWIII. The thing is China is depending on us borrowing from them as much as we're dependent on them.

Yeah...that would be kinda scary...a WWIII. but i like that idea of a "come at me bro" idea. because the rest of the world all seem to be pushovers. Not saying they're a bunch of whiners or w/e but its not like they'll really do anything about it (except maybe china). Like for example. How many countries signed up for a coalition to go against Libya's govt in support of the rebels, then how many countries backed out within the first 2 weeks? So yeah! We should just come out and say they'll never get their money back :D

Before the thread gets too far, I need to warn people against equating national debt with the analogy of consumer debt.

Consumer debt is simple. You owe (someone) money and have to pay them back. It is one way, cut and dry.

National debt is very different. It can be owned by foreign governments, or even by your own citizens, in which case the country essentially owes money to itself. This is the case in Japan, who's debt currently stands at 200% GDP, but very little which is owed to foreign governments.

US debt is held all over the place. Corporations hold it as secure investment, citizens hold it on loan from themselves at interest, etc. In some cases, countries owe each other tremendous amounts of money, but don't square out their balance sheets because it's more profitable to ***-for-tat each other on interest rates.

Countries also forgive one another's debt all the time. It's a primary way we provide "aid" to others. And let's not forget the fact we can also just print out more dollars and hand it to our debtors, although that entails unintended consequences. Consumers can't do any of these things.

And just to complicate issues even further, owing other countries money isn't all bad. There's a great deal of political leverage you can wield when other countries have a vested interest in you surviving long enough to pay them back all their interest in 30 years. They don't want to see you go under.

Point being, it's reeeaaaally complex, and I don't think anyone other than a real economist should be trusted to lecture on it.

In my opinion, we've been needing to do this for a long time anyway. We've gotten so far from the basics of what our forefathers in this country started to do a long time ago to become such a world power that we put our business into everything and everywhere. Our "national interests" globally are almost never at home, which seems a little... overbearing.

blame the cold war for national interests never being at home.