Katie Couric's Notebook: Sign Of The Times

By: Katie Couric
Topics: Katie Couric's Notebook

Since 1989, the National Debt Clock has been a fixture in Manhattan's Times Square. After you've dropped a cool $200 on a Broadway Show, a glimpse of its ominous ticker might deter you from that $20 nightcap.

And now, that clock has run out of numbers. Our national debt, now at $10.2, is one digit larger than the spots available on the sign.

When real estate mogul Seymour Durst created the clock back in 1989, the debt was at $2.7 trillion. Since 2003, it has grown by half a trillion each year, and the bailout Congress just signed will likely kick that number up even higher by the end of 2008.

But rather than retiring the debt sign, the Dursts will redesign it to include enough spaces for a quadrillion.

Expanding the credit line when money is tight - isn't that how we got into this mess in the first place? The debt clock literally is a sign of the times.

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by shylove2 October 13, 2008 11:03 PM EDT: It is a sign of the times and is a familiar one. One time it was war with social programs and this time it was war with no taxes. In both cases severe economic times followed. It is time to realize war is a false profit. It is a deep debt, especially to the dead and wounded and to the collaterally damaged, those damaged with no collateral. Our collateral that was damaged wasn''t ever there, we are only bleeding paper blood, some are bleeding real blood, both our soldier and innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Our national debt is composed of more than dollars!!; Reply to this comment


by eveningnews3 October 13, 2008 3:53 AM EDT: Even Stranger things are afoot at the Circle-Katie.; Reply to this comment


by Pepper1887 October 12, 2008 4:36 PM EDT: Katie..show the same "courage/arrogance" the you presented to Sarah Palin when you "fairly" asked her your "creative questions". Can you be as forthcoming in reporting the ACORN/OBAMA relationship and more importantly .. Voter Fraud and ACORN. Do you have the guts...; Reply to this comment


by anghiari October 12, 2008 1:46 PM EDT: Hey Katie and forum posters, I copied this blogger''s post off the Anchorage Daily news website forum he provides a link to a letter of recommendation on behalf of mike Wooten (Troopergate) by guess who? The Mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin in 2000...Maybe that''s why she wanted him fired so badly, she got him hired in the first place.

Click on the link

wrote on 10/11/2008 06:49:08 PM:
You Sarah Failin IDIOTS read for yourself why Trooper Wooten got his Job with the State Police.

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site163/2008/0721/20080721_111415_PalinLetterofRecomend.pdf; Reply to this comment


by fortuenti October 12, 2008 12:36 PM EDT: The level of DISRESPECT and CONTEMPT for George Washington shown by politicians in the District of Columbia is enough that we should strike that great name from the city so that it no longer be associated with that government because it goes AGAINST his principles which were;

"As a very important source of strength & security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible: avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it--avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of Peace to discharge the Debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear."

http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/farewell/transcript.html#p21

I am both ASHAMED and EMBARASSED to be a US Citizen because it is NO LONGER George Washington%u2019s country. SAD!; Reply to this comment


by lila356 October 11, 2008 5:32 AM EDT: I remember when they put that thing up. I used to think it was a lot of money. Maybe they should just display the numbers on a live ticker in Times Square. Looks like we''ll be needing the space.; Reply to this comment


by petersemkiw October 11, 2008 2:00 AM EDT: National Debt and Debit Clocks are also urgently needed in the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives, as well as festive and exciting Times Square!And as far as the National Bailout goes, after the Wild Week we''ve had on Wall Street, I heard that all nightcaps served in Times Square this weekend will be on the House!; Reply to this comment


by misfy October 10, 2008 10:33 PM EDT: Perhaps a National "Debit" Clock...; Reply to this comment


by cbs300 October 10, 2008 9:15 PM EDT: Hey Katie as your ratings and creditability go down your bias for Obama go up.; Reply to this comment


by cbs300 October 10, 2008 9:09 PM EDT: CBS is not only "in the tank" for Obama they are unfit to be a news organization with their agenda; Reply to this comment