Such is the surge in America's debt that even technology is finding it difficult to measure its level as a clock earmarked for keeping a tab on country's national debt has run out of digits!
The operator of the National Debt Clock, installed at Times Square in New York, has now dropped the dollar sign in the total figure to accommodate a ten trillion dollar figure.
A replacement for the clock with two additional digits that would be able to account for up to quadrillion dollars of debt is expected only by the next year.
The existing clock can accommodate up to 9,999,999,999,999 dollars (just one dollar short of $ 10-trillion) of debt with a dollar sign ($) preceding it, but the clock has started showing the figure without the dollar sign after the debt level recently reached the 10-trillion dollar level.
At the last check, the clock showed the United States' total national debt at about 10,250,000,000,000 dollars (10.25 trillion dollars). With an estimated population of about 305 million, this results into an average debt of close to 34,000 dollars for every US citizen.
The clock is said to have been first installed in 1989 when the national debt stood at about 2.7 trillion dollars.
The clock shows the total amount of debt owed by the US government and was first installed by real estate developer
Seymour Durst.
The Durst Organization now plans to replace this clock with a newer 15-digit version, as against its current capability of showing 13 digits, in addition to a dollar sign.
The financial rescue packages totalling over a trillion dollar, including the latest 700-billion dollar plan, and the government's expected move to buy shares in some banks, are expected to further inflate the country's debt levels.