The American Economy: Give or take a trillion dollars

We've been reading a lot in the press where a “trillion dollars” or so is tossed around:

The Bush administration revealed America's budget deficit will climb to a record high of more than half-a-Trillion dollars.

As of February ’08, the meltdown in the US subprime real-estate market has led to a global loss of 7.7 trillion dollars in stock-market value.

In order to bail out Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, Congress increased the national debt by a whopping $800 billion sending it over the $10 trillion mark for the first time in history!

The U.S. annual gross domestic product is about $15 trillion.

Since the passage of NAFTA and the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1994, America’s massive trade deficits has surpassed $5 trillion.

Foreigners own $2.5 trillion more of American assets than Americans own of foreign assets.

There are roughly $6 trillion in US dollar-backed assets around the world which could be quickly dumped if foreign holders of US dollars start selling their paper on the open market.

The non-partisan Government Accountability Office that says the U.S. government faces a $53 Trillion shortfall to cover the costs of promised benefits in its entitlement programs: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Meanwhile, the U.S.’s national debt is expanding by about $1.4 billion a day -- or nearly $1 million a minute.