The Debt Clock is hacked?

[whippoorwill]

For the past 3 or 4 years I've been tacking these items and posting them to my Facebook page every Friday and Monday. As a way of keeping myself abreast and of making sure my friends eyes cross these numbers from time to time. Most people only know the price of gas because thats the only price they see on a daily bases. My question is dealing with the National debt and the Budget deficit numbers. I have seen slight down ticks in the National debt from time to time but it was only slight and it kept marching up after that. I've seen slight up ticks in the Budget deficit but its been on a Slow and Steady march downward. But this new set of numbers coming from the debt clock blew my fucking mind. Both had over a 100Billion down thick! This set I've posted here is from July 12th.

10 year U.S. Treasury 2.55 %
National debt 16.912 Trillion
Budget deficit 1.010 Trillion
Oil 105 $
Gold 1,278 $<-Nice spike
M3 ? (Total quantity of Dollars)July 15th is when the (hack) took place. I thought it was just a bug in the system so I just carryed over the old numbers. But today July 19th the numbers are still 100 Billion short.

10 year U.S. Treasury 2.56 %
National debt 16.912 Trillion
Budget deficit 1.010 Trillion
Oil 106 $ <-steady march up
Gold 1,281 $
M3 ? (Total quantity of Dollars)Anyone know whats going on?
http://www.usdebtclock.org/

[QuickZ06]

Anyone know whats going on?

Ben Bernanke is actually fixing the economy???

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5260/f4v.gif (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/825/f4v.gif/)

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/7428/wx8u.gif (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/18/wx8u.gif/)

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/2084/qskb.gif (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/812/qskb.gif/)

http://img547.imageshack.us/img547/600/7ob.gif (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/547/7ob.gif/)

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/9633/llzv.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/40/llzv.jpg/)

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/4360/3f19.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/59/3f19.jpg/)

[whippoorwill]

A quarter Trillion dollar bump!

[VBRonPaulFan]

if you're asking why the national debt hasn't been moving upwards, it's because the treasury has taken 'extraordinary measures' to cap the national debt at the debt limit and has financed gov't spending in other ways in the interim.

[Weston White]

Yea, I checked about two-days ago and it was just over $16.9 trillion and now it is just about to reach that again. Perhaps, Bernanke wrote a huge check to paid down the principal? ;)

[Zippyjuan]

Government revenues and expenditures vary from month to month. In June they actually ran a surplus (revenues exceeded expenditures) which was.....$116 billion.
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-budget-surplus-2013-7


US DELIVERS ITS BIGGEST BUDGET SURPLUS IN 5 YEARS

According to new Monthly Treasury Statement , the U.S. posted a $116.5 billion budget surplus in June.

Revenue climbed 10.2% to $286.6 billion, while outlays plunged 46.8% to $170.1 billion.

This is the biggest surplus since April 2008.

This was also higher than the $115 billion surplus expected by the CBO and by economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

"Some of the swing in the budget in today’s report for June will be exaggerated by calendar quirks and a payment from Fannie Mae, but the trend is clearly toward improvement," said High Frequency Economics' Jim O'Sullivan before the statement was released.

"The deficit has dropped to an estimated 4.4% of GDP in the past four quarters from 8.0% in the previous four quarters and more than 10% at the peak in 2009. The downtrend has reflected strength in revenues as well as weakness in outlays. Some of the strength in revenues is the result of higher tax rates, but the data also suggest that GDP may have been undercounted."

"Without those calendar shifts, the difference between the surplus in June and deficit last year would have been $102B," said UBS's Maury Harris ahead of the statement.

Fiscal year-to-date, the budget deficit sits at $510 billion.

"If the current laws that govern federal taxes and spending do not change, the budget deficit will shrink this year to $642 billion, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates, the smallest shortfall since 2008," said the Congressional Budget Office in May.

All of this comes as the U.S. economy tries to gain steam amid a fiscal drag, which included the dreaded sequester.

[whippoorwill]

Government revenues and expenditures vary from month to month. In June they actually ran a surplus (revenues exceeded expenditures) which was.....$116 billion.
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-budget-surplus-2013-7

I've been tracking these numbers for years and this "vary from month to month" is outside of the norm by a lightyear! The combined drop in National debt and the Budget deficit numbers is a Quarter Trillion Dollars in one weekend!

[Zippyjuan]

I've been tracking these numbers for years and this "vary from month to month" is outside of the norm by a lightyear! The combined drop in National debt and the Budget deficit numbers is a Quarter Trillion Dollars in one weekend!

You are counting the same number twice. The clock was adjusted to reflect the June budget surplus. The debt is the sum of all budget deficits/ surpluses.

[whippoorwill]

You are counting the same number twice. The clock was adjusted to reflect the June budget surplus. The debt is the sum of all budget deficits/ surpluses.

The National debt and the Budget deficit numbers have been going in opposite directions for as along as I've been tracking them..with small anomaly from time to time. The National debt goes up. The Budget deficit goes down. But lets just take your argument at face value..It's still Light-years outside the norm! I'm not blowing smoke when I say I've been tracking these numbers for years. Even granting for the sequester and fiscal cliff tax hikes which have been in place for months. This is a MASSIVE move.

[ThePenguinLibertarian]

You are counting the same number twice. The clock was adjusted to reflect the June budget surplus. The debt is the sum of all budget deficits/ surpluses.

does that mean the economy is good? the austrians are wrong? Keynesianism saved the economy?

[Nobexliberty]

does that mean the economy is good? the austrians are wrong? Keynesianism saved the economy? Keynesianism is good in the short term but in the long term it is all downhill. Keynesianism can work but only for short periods of time, its like a ponzi scheme and people love it until the negatives affect them.

[Zippyjuan]

The National debt and the Budget deficit numbers have been going in opposite directions for as along as I've been tracking them..with small anomaly from time to time. The National debt goes up. The Budget deficit goes down. But lets just take your argument at face value..It's still Light-years outside the norm! I'm not blowing smoke when I say I've been tracking these numbers for years. Even granting for the sequester and fiscal cliff tax hikes which have been in place for months. This is a MASSIVE move.

If the deficit goes down, the debt still rises- just more slowly with smaller amounts being added to the total debt. If the deficit turns into a surplus- which it did in June, THEN it will move backwards.

$116 billion in a $3 trillion budget or a $15 trillion debt is not really a "massive" move. And it was just for one month. It won't stay a surplus. Current projections are for the fiscal year annual debt to be about $650 billion which means adding an average of $55 billion a month to the debt. Both revenues and spending vary from month to month so some will be bigger and some will be smaller. Compared to $1.1 trillion annual deficit when Obama took office.

[Zippyjuan]

Keynesianism is good in the short term but in the long term it is all downhill. Keynesianism can work but only for short periods of time, its like a ponzi scheme and people love it until the negatives affect them.

Quite true. Any economic stimulus has a limited impact and if you want to keep the impact going, you have to exponentially increase the stimulus. The market adjusts to the new conditions and expectations.

[Zippyjuan]

does that mean the economy is good? the austrians are wrong? Keynesianism saved the economy?

The number says absolutely nothing about the state of the economy or Austrians or Keynsians. Just means that for one month the government took in more money in taxes than they spent- a rare occurance in the last 50 or so years.