The Real Size of the US Deficit in 2009 is $9 Trillion

I already mentioned the site http://www.shadowstats.com/ on my blog as a source of information about the economy which does not tweak the economic data to make it more palatable for the general public consumption, and does not put a positive spin on the numbers. The problem is that the site is not free. Well, I stumbled across a source which reports the recent information off that site in the open Internet. And what they are reporting is shocking.

It turns out that the release of an annual US deficit report by the US Treasury will be delayed by two months till at least February 2010. This deficit calculation uses the Generally Accepted Accounting (GAAP) principles, the same which are required of all of the US corporations. And according to the shadowstats website, it is going to show a deficit of $9 trillion in 2009 ALONE.

"The reason why the “official” deficit numbers are so radically different from the real budget numbers for the United States is that with GAAP accounting, the government is not allowed to hide its “unfunded liabilities” off of its balance sheet." You can read more on the story here.

So as a corporation, the US is almost bankrupt: with a $14-trillion-a-year GDP we can't be running annual deficits of $9-trillion for long.

So let us wait till February and see how much of this information we will be able to read in the - what some of my friends consider to be - American news.