Debt clock

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The National Debt Clock in New York (2009), an example for all other projects of that kind US Debt Clock 15-09-2009.JPG
The National Debt Clock in New York (2009), an example for all other projects of that kind

A debt clock is a public counter, which displays the government debt (also known as public debt or national debt) of a public corporation, usually of a state, and which visualizes the progression through an update every second. Because of the mirror-image correlation between liabilities and accounts receivable meanwhile there are assets clocks or property clocks also, which visualize the private and state assets. Clocks to display the national interest charge are called interest clocks.

Contents

Debt clock of the German Taxpayers Federation shows its prognosis about the public debt of Germany. MK11475 Schuldenuhr Wiesbaden Adolfsallee 22.jpg
Debt clock of the German Taxpayers Federation shows its prognosis about the public debt of Germany.
Debt clock in Langenfeld, Germany Langenfeld Schuldenuhr.jpg
Debt clock in Langenfeld, Germany

Purpose

The debt clock strikingly shows the dynamics of the state's debt growth. In this connection private debts and the growth of the monetary assets of the creditors are disregarded. The debt clock, besides showing the actual new indebtedness of the state through investment credits from government bonds, as well shows the effect out of interest and compound interest ("interest on interest") and the swelling of state indebtedness coming from the interest payable.

Examples

Many countries and cities have public debt clocks installed.

Critics

The missing confrontation of the growing assets and the increasing debts is criticised i.a. on the part of the unions. In this context an assets clock or property clock displaying the rising assets is encouraged. [9]

Senior economist of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Heiner Flassbeck, in February 2007 criticised the bias and striking impact of the debt clock. He suggested to put a clock aside with a display of the private assets/property and its growth to enable the judgement of the debts against the background of present property values and assets. [10] Meanwhile property- or richness clocks in several variants were published. [11]

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References

  1. New York Post Archived 2008-10-06 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Spiegel Online
  3. New York Post, 5 June 2017
  4. "German Taxpayers Federation (stand: 19 April 2011)". Archived from the original on 2 March 2009. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  5. Spiegel: "They lost their credibility" (German), 28 October 2010
  6. "Taxpayers Federation Bavaria". Archived from the original on 2008-05-14. Retrieved 2015-03-11.
  7. Manager-Magazin: Düsseldorf is debt-free (German), 2007
  8. WDR
  9. WDR
  10. German article from the Frankfurter Rundschau, 28 February 2007 (PDF; 45 kB)
  11. "Richness clock Hamburg at radiohamburg.de retrieved 2 May 2011". Archived from the original on 26 April 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2015.