jaysus…

I know, I know, I said I wouldn't look at US news anymore today.

But this one just blew me away:

Congress passes $800 billion debt limit hike:

With the government facing imminent default because it has depleted its authority to borrow money, the debt limit bill would pump up the federal borrowing cap to $8.18 trillion. That is 70 percent the size of the entire U.S. economy, and more than $2.4 trillion higher than the debt Bush inherited upon taking office in 2001.

So what does this mean? It means that, well, since we're broke, and the law says we can't borrow any more money, lets change the law!

Now ya see, any financial planner worth his weight in paper will tell you that borrowing more than 50% of your annual income is a surefire way to land in bankruptcy. Borrowing 70% of your GNP is not only suicidal, it's just plain stupid. Unless you're the US, apparently…

Just as a mental exercise, to try and visualize just how BIG a trillion dollars is, follow me in the following demonstration:

1 trillion = 1000 billion = 1 000 000 million = 1 000 000 000 000 = 10^12.

If you went back in time 10^12 seconds, you'd wind up in 29,705 B.C.

/end of rant. No more US politics for me today…