US Published National Debt
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The Truth
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Each Taxpayer's Share: $978,000
Financial State of the Union 2024
Our new Financial State of the Union report shows that the U.S. government’s financial condition worsened by $7.9 trillion in 2023.
Financial State of the Cities 2024
At the end of the fiscal year 2022, 53 cities did not have enough money to pay all of their bills.
Financial State of the States 2023
Our fourteenth Financial State of the States report found debt among the states was $938.6 billion, which is down from $1.2 trillion at the end of fiscal year 2021. Overall, it appeared state debt decreased primarily due to the following two factors: tax revenue increases due to the lockdowns ending, and millions, if not billions, of dollars in federal COVID funds received by the states.
Data-Z (database for state and city data)
Create your own chart with more than 700 data variables at the federal, state, and city levels.
Lawmakers still turn blind eye toward our pension debt
May 14, 2024
Orange County Register
When arguing about whether the Treasury needed to take urgent action to deal with soaring federal debt in the 1980s, the late former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Herb Stein coined Stein’s Law. It was simple and obvious: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
Government Influence in Accounting Rulemaking Has Led to Understated Costs and Worse Financial Outcomes
May 14, 2024
ProMarket
Municipal and state governments provide input to the organization that creates their accounting standards. Such input by stakeholders can be helpful, but their influence has produced some accounting rules that diverge from both economic reality and private sector rules. These deviations allow governments to understate budget liabilities, including pensions plans, and put at risk the financial health of states and cities across the United States.
Walters: California’s descent into government secrecy
May 2, 2024
The Press Democrat
California’s shortcomings in transparency have not gone unnoticed outside the state. An organization called Truth in Accounting, which monitors financial information management across the nation, just issued a 50-state score card on transparency and California scored third from the bottom.
Student Loans, City Debt, & the Government's Exclusion
April 16, 2024
The truth about government finances through the lens of accounting, not politics.
Waste of the Day Report, the financial state of California, and the City of Dallas $6.9 billion in debt, and so much more.
Note from Sheila
June 20, 2023
Today's inside look focuses on the wins coming from the Truth in Accounting partnership with the University of Denver, which has opened up new opportunities and introduced our name and work to a wider audience. But these wins aren't for us. They are for you! And we can only rack up more wins with financial support. DU doesn't fund us. We fund the project.
Inconsistent bank regulation spells trouble for investors
June 13, 2023
XBRL US
"The failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was not a surprise to regulators or investors who took the time to check the bank’s financial statements and footnotes. By March of 2021, unrealized debt securities losses for the bank had already begun to climb, reaching ($1,343) million by year-end December 2021, and leaping to ($15,160) million a year later, all the while the bank’s stockholders’ equity remained flat."
Exclusive: Pentagon accounting error overvalued Ukraine weapons aid by $3 billion
May 27, 2023
Reuters
"WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) - The Pentagon overestimated the value of the ammunition, missiles and other equipment it sent to Ukraine by around $3 billion, a Senate aide and a defense official said on Thursday, an error that may lead the way for more weapons being sent to Kyiv for its defense against Russian forces."
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