Greece is on everyone's mind. It is the supposed reason the Euro has fallen over 15% in the last four weeks. When thinking of the 16 countries which make up the European Union, yes, several of the countries are in financial trouble but many of them are not.

Does it seem strange our debt rating agencies take a harsh view on these countries and yet turn a blind eye to the fate of the US. Does the USA not also have many states, 50 in all, which are all virtually bankrupt. If Greece truly is responsible for the Euro's fall, why doesn't California, which has the 8th largest economy in the world, and does its business in US Dollars, make the dollar fall greatly.

As of this writing, Obama should be signing into law the increase of the debt ceiling to $14.29 Trillion. That extra $1.9T will give them about 11 months to work with until we breech that new level.

It took 194 years (1787 to 1981) for the US to reach $1 T in debt. Now we go through $1 Trillion in a mere 5 months.

POP QUIZ: What percentage of the total debt we accumulated to date came after 1971, the year we left the gold standard?
If you answered 97%, give yourself a cupcake.

POP QUIZ: Name the last year the US posted a surplus and paid down the actual debt owned?
If you said, 2000, you would be ........WRONG!

Though the government reported a surplus, the actual debt still grew by $18 Billion that year. The closest we've been to paying down debt in 40 years. The right answer would be 1960, the last year the US actually reduced it's debt. For the last 40 years, we've been rolling over our old debt and issuing new debt to replace it.

When JFK posted his first budget in 1961  for the USA , it was $98 Billion. That was enough to sustain government for 184 Million people.

Today the budget to rule 307 Million people, far less than double the amount of people in 1961,  is $3.8 Trillion.  The numbers alone reflect the lunacy of the size of our government.

Last Note:
2008 reported deficit was  $450 Billion. Each year the government puts out a GAAP report on the real deficit including the wars in Iraq, Afganistan, and the unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare, so forth. The real deficit for 2008 was $5.1 Trillion.

Can you say Dollar Crisis Anyone!

February 16th, the 2009 GAAP report comes out. Considering the "Official" number was $1.3 Trillion, god only knows the REAL number will be.

Stay tuned......