National debt: $13,872,907,209,101.48 according to the US National Debt Clock as of 21 Dec 2010 at 11:52:51 PM GMT.
Number of people: 308,745,538 according to the US Census.
Lessee… carry the one… and voila! Your share is $44,933.14.
Category: Finances
Mechanical Investing, balancing the checkbook, and trying to find change for the vending machine
Making It Up
The US Labor Department released unemployment figures this morning that beat expecations.
The figures released, though, were just made up. Nine states, including California, did not report numbers due to the Labor Day holiday.
From Bloomberg,
For the latest reporting week, nine states didn’t file claims data to the Labor Department in Washington because of the federal holiday earlier this week, a Labor Department official told reporters. As a result, California and Virginia estimated their figures and the U.S. government estimated the other seven, the official said.
If you’re just making up the numbers anyway, beating expectations is easy. “I expected to say ‘2’ but I suprised myself by saying ‘3’!”
My Tax Burden
Would you like to know why the US economy is about to take a nosedive yet again? It’s because people will have less to spend. A *lot* less.
Check out MyTaxBurden.org. Plug in fictitious numbers if you want. Then press the “Calculate” button and see how much more in taxes you’re about to spend next year when the Bush tax cuts expire.
People have less to spend, so they spend less. Rocket science.
