"The debt crisis that the government and individuals face is the most pressing issues of our time… Our mission is to inform the American people about the country's dire financial situation."

So define their goal the anonymous creators of the most comprehensive on-line Debt Clock. The constantly changing numbers do look scary – judge for yourself at http://www.usdebtclock.org/

If the current trend continues, in 4 to 5 years the United States will find itself roughly where Greece is today, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 150 per cent. Greece is universally thought to be headed for default in the near future and is wholly dependent on emergency loans.

This year alone the United States had to borrow some $1.3 trillion to keep paying its bills. The chart shows that Medicare/Medicaid sucks up the most money from the budget, closely followed by Social Security and Defense/Wars spending.

Huge money-guzzlers, each comparable with the GDP of such a developed country as the Netherlands – and only marginally smaller than Mexico's.

Medicare is one 800-pound gorilla that eats money like there is no tomorrow and urgently needs reforming. The United States has the most privatized health care system in the world, which happens to be by far the most expensive one as well. Some economists argue that the astronomical costs of medical services wipe out all the benefits Americans might otherwise enjoy thanks to a relatively low tax burden.

Apart from being expensive, Medicare is also very inviting for criminals of all hues. Medicare fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers $60 billion to $90 billion a year. Don't take it from us – take it from Cliff Stearns, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations – he should know.

Social Security, known in other countries as pensions, appears to be in better shape for now, but it will run out of money within 20 years if the age of retirement is not raised.

Defense and war spending cuts are the talk of the town and are winning critical politicians like Ron Paul legions of new fans. But the defense lobby is probably the most entrenched and trained in survival tactics of all the Washington lobbies. By contrast, even America's closest ally Britain is busy radically reducing its army (by 20,000 soldiers in nine years – roughly 10 per cent of its total force) and withdrawing from overseas deployments.

Say what you will about Obama, his administration and the Congress, but one thing is clear – collectively they did not manage to address any of the issues. Trying to decide what expenditure to cut – and how – the so-called Supercommittee has failed publicly and miserably.

And here's the result of the year 2011: total debt surpassed gross domestic product by $15 trillion.

In August, Standard and Poor's downgraded the US debt rating for the first time ever.

Now, all this is not new and has been raised time and time again.

Here is what we believe has not.

A quick look at the political map shows that the countries the United States sees as allies are by-and-large in a similar predicament. The financial crisis hurts the eurozone, and bites in Japan.

The countries where growth is impressive and economies are in better shape are those Washington has political problems with.

Communist China has been the world's fastest-growing big economy over the last 30 years. This year it’s overtaken Japan as the world's Number 2 and continues to prowl along at 10 per cent growth a year.

Russia is the only large country expected to grow faster in 2012, according to Morgan Stanley, with its growth pace accelerating to 5 per cent annually from the current 4.5 per cent.

Even arch-enemy Iran's economy is growing at over 3 per cent a year, i.e. much faster than the US or the EU. This despite sanctions.

One, of course, could try to find any number of reasons why it is like that (and oh-so-many do!) – high oil prices, artificially low currency, even lack of democracy.

That might be partially true, but how about other potential reasons, for instance:

Some countries do not spend lavishly on its army & navy, in order to fight any number of wars far from its shores.

Some countries do not suffer from political stalemate where executive and legislative powers fight trench warfare over every bit of initiative by the other side.

Finally, there are some countries where financial moguls do not have the audacity (and muscle) to demand a bailout from taxpayers after squandering their own money.

Perhaps – just perhaps – those are the reasons that countries like China, Russia – as well as India, Brazil, Turkey and many others are pulling ahead?

RT.com