1. Should We Worry About the National Debt? Economics Chapter 14

2. 1,000,000,000,000 What does a Trillion look like? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tym9AhMNcP0

3. What is the National Debt? http://www.usdebtclock.org/

4. What is the National Debt? The national debt represents the sum of annual budget deficit minus annual surpluses, incurred since the Revolutionary War.

5. What Caused the National Debt? 1.Paying for wars 2.Increased government spending during recessions 3.Tax decreases not accompanied by decrease in spending 4.Unforeseen events

6. Where does the government get the money when it wants to spend more than it takes in? The government borrows money by selling securities (bonds) The government also has the power to print money – the US rarely does this

7. What are budget deficits and surpluses?

10. Activity Read your handout Answer questions on back Note: Handouts 1 and 2 represent DIFFERENT opinion/perspective Discuss!

11. Video http://video.pbs.org/video/1099844054/ “Ten Trillion and Counting”