American deficit reaches $14 trillion

Debt, not deficit. Anyone who doesn't know the difference probably shouldn't be writing articles on the subject for a newspaper/magazine.

Also, this is off-topic; consider politics.reddit.

It takes some perspective to see (gathering stats from wwikipedia.org):

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Gross Domestic Product of Top Ten Countries

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United States 13,843,825,000,000

Japan 4,383,762,000,000

Germany 3,322,147,000,000

China 3,250,827,000,000

France 2,772,570,000,000

United Kingdom 2,560,255,000,000

Italy 2,104,666,000,000

California 1,812,968,000,000

Spain 1,438,959,000,000

Canada 1,432,140,000,000

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Country External debt of Top Ten Countries

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United States 13,450,000,000,000

United Kingdom 9,088,000,000,000

Germany 5,208,000,000,000

France 5,021,000,000,000

Netherlands 3,733,000,000,000

Spain 2,410,000,000,000

Italy 2,328,000,000,000

Ireland 2,287,000,000,000

Japan 2,132,000,000,000

Luxembourg 1,994,000,000,000

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If I was to be concerned about any country it would be England. They are 6th in GDP, but #2 in external debt.

To make things simple:

• Fred has a salary of $13,843,825.00/year and buys a $13,450,000.00 house via a loan.

• Jane has a salary of $2,560,255.00/year and buys a $9,088,000.00 house via a loan.

Now, which one do you think has the potential pay off the loan early?