national debt

The Federal Reserve has "adjusted" the books of GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to shift $4.4 Trillion in toxic debt from their balance sheets onto the government's  balance sheets.  

This is a slightly surprising move considering that American taxpayers are already on the hook for bad debts held by Fannie and Freddie.  At least when it is in Fannie and Freddie's hands, most of the public doesn't know any better.

 Don't you wish you had this option? Get closer to maxing out your available credit, so you give yourself a higher limit?  That is exactly what Congress just proposed.  As the national debt nears it's cap of $12.4 Trillion, Congress wants to increase how much it can borrow to $14.3 Trillion... an increase of $1.9 Trillion dollars.

Only a decade ago the entire Federal government operated on less than $1.9 Trillion.  Obama's deficit last year was $1.4 Trillion.  That means Uncle Sam had to borrow $1.4 Trillion just to function.  Here's what that looks like: $1,400,000,000,000.  When you look at a number that big, then the $100,000,000 ($100 Million, $0.1 Billion, $0.0001 Trillion) that they borrowed to send as "relief" to Haiti doesn't look so bad.