National Debt Clock draws worried glances, reactions (it's run out of digits)

[TechBear_Seattle]

National Debt Clock draws worried glances, reactions

A watched clock never moves -- unless it's the National Debt Clock.

In fact, the digital counter has been moving so much that it recently ran out of digits to display the ballooning figure: $10,150,603,734,720, or roughly $10.2 trillion, as of Saturday afternoon.

The clock was put up by the late real estate mogul Seymour Durst in 1989 when the U.S. government's debt was a mere $2.7 trillion, and was even turned off during the 1990s when the debt decreased.

It will be replaced in 2009 with a new clock, said Jordan Barowitz, a spokesman for the Durst Organization. The new clock will be able to track debt up to a quadrillion dollars, which is a '1' followed by 15 zeros.

In the meantime, the '1' from "$10.2" has been moved left to the LCD square once occupied solely by the digital dollar sign. A non-digital, improvised dollar sign has been pasted next to the '1.'

The CNN article continues at http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/12/national.debt.clock.ap/index.html

[ixion]

1. Got debt?

Not a problem. Just get a bigger clock. :eyes:

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Mission Accomplished." - Republicon so-called 'conservatives'