July 2nd Discussion (Questions and Answers)

What is the current rate in which money is printed in the United States?
During the (FY) 2008, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing produced approximately 38 million notes a day with a face value of approximately $629 billion. There is question to what percent of that goes towards replacement or what percent is "new" money. In an earlier blog I had the statistic that 95% of the money printed last year was used to replace existing money.

What is the U.S. debt?
On March 3, 2009 the United States had a debt of $10.9 trillion. I also noted that most of that debt is to the citizens of the country so it does not seem to be that big of a deal. That is why citizen buy bonds.

Does the U.S. borrow money from somewhere?
We owe money to China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and other oil exporting countries. Our total debt to other countries is $3072.2 billion. Here is a break down of the top 5:
China=$739.6 billion
Japan=$634.8 billion
Oil Exporters=$186.3 billion
Caribbean Banking Centers=$176.6 billion
Brazil=$133.5 billion

What is inflation?
-rise of the prices of goods and services in the economy
-decline in the real value of money
-loss of purchasing power
-increase in the supply of currency or credit relative to the availability of goods and services

I also found a very interesting web page: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread342930/pg1
The rest of the information was a combined effort of all the team members to compile.