Some interesting facts to drive home the point that our country is in serious financial trouble…

For FY 2008 the US balance sheet showed 1.974 Trillion in Assets.  We also had 12.178 Trillion in Liabilities.  This alone is frightening but lets focus a little more on what makes up the liabilities.  $5.8 Trillion is really the part that matters because this is public debt.  To put this one way for every 1 dollar of public debt we have a little over 30 cents of assets to cover it.  Granted the US government can’t liquidate and sell off everything but the point is we have some issues.  The State of Virginia has about $2 dollars of assets for every $1 in liabilities.  Canada has $1.5 worth of assets for every $1 of liabilities.  Those are just two examples to show how extreme the US currently is.

Now I understand that some might read this and say this isn’t the best measurement of the financial position of a country but it does give you a rough idea that something is not right and brings me to my main point.

China owns about $740 Billion of our debt or almost 40% of our total federal assets.  Japan owns $635 billion of our debt or almost 35% of our total federal assets.  China and Japan basically own our country without acting on it.

Hopefully people will read this and understand that we can’t live like this forever.  The day will come when the bill comes due and if we don’t take action soon the current economy will seem like a boom time in comparison.