Today is our independence day. We need to take the stock of our independence. According to Treasury Department, our national debt is $ 11,518,472,742,288 as of last Wednesday. Many of us cannot even read the number. China, Japan and Oil exporting countries are our largest creditors. Interest payments are now $ 452,000,000,000 annually. This year our estimated deficit is $ 1,850,000,000,000. It means increasing debt service by additional $ 75,000,000,000 approximately. Are these numbers too big? Wait until you hear this: US Government has $45,000,000,000,000 in unfunded liabilities for the retirements and health commitments. The total is over $ 56 TRILLION. These numbers will keep rising for a foreseeable future. To understand the magnitude of these numbers, divide them by the number of persons living in United States. It is $ 186,000 per person! Some economists will try to calm you down by converting these numbers to a percentage of gross national product. Who cares for GNP? All we care is what $ 450,000,000,000 debt service is doing to our personal fortunes. How would like to eliminate all of your income taxes? Or take care of your major medicals or medicines without any cost?  How about free education to all your children? How about making all homes free and clear in 3 years?  I cannot list even all the things we can accomplish. Whoever thinks we are on a viable course must be crazy. No wonder our homes are in foreclosures as government takes 40 cents of each dollar you make. Can we not pay our mortgage from forty percent of our income?

These are the domestic concerns but let tell you how it plays internationally and on our future lives. Just one example. China has almost $ 700,000,000 in US Paper. She cannot spend the dollars enough and it keeps piling up. It is getting close to monopoly money. So she goes to African countries and gives out few billions in aid here and there and in turn gets mining rights on cobalt and other precious minerals. Africa has 60% of world supply of Cobalt. Cobalt is the essential material for all electronic equipments. Do you get the picture? Cobalt is not the only material.  Low cost or no cost loans to Poor nations of Africa are to be repaid in oil and other materials at bargain prices to keep the factories at home humming  for the low cost products to be exported to USA and diplomatic favors on the world stage. Vicious cycle continues.

There is nobody to blame but our collective failure to grasp the enormity of the effect of the global village. Our personal day to day decisions as to our buying habits, leadership failures and limited and short term approach caused this quagmire. I wish our leaders had addressed the balance of payments in trade for last 30 years? When you import more, you export the job. When you export the job, some one else owns the home. This is the simple economics that prevails in the end.