Yesterday we wrote that the trend is your friend. We misspoke. To clarify, sometimes it’s your friend, sometimes not. It depends on the trend, the context, and the end result. When it comes to deficit spending in the government of these United States, we know the trend, we know the context; only the end result is in question. Even so, we have our suspicions of what financial fate may have in store for us, and so does everyone else. But they are only suspicions.
Before we pontificate on the matter of red ink (again), let’s identify the $781 billion in question. Indeed, there are so many billions earmarked for this and that in the halls of Congress these days that one can’t assume much when it comes to referencing large pots of money headed for a government spending program. It’s easy to get confused. As such, we’re talking of yesterday’s vote in the Senate to elevate the ceiling on federal debt by a cool $781 billion.
In some circles, $781 billion is a lot of money. How much is a lot? Seven-hundred-eighty-one billion buys a bit more than 39 billion copies of the paperback edition of Ben Graham’s Intelligent Investor, more than 24 million of this year’s Lexus ES300s model, and nearly 2.68 million homes at the average U.S. price in January, according to Census Bureau data. But when it comes to budgetary issues in Washington, $781 billion is a drop in the bucket. To be exact, $781 billion is less than 9% of total government debt, which rounds out to $9 trillion–that’s with a “t.”