Academic

In a true "sign of the times," the national debt clock, which sits in Times Square and keeps tabs on the national debt level, has to be replaced because it has maxed out--that is, it does not have enough digits to capture our national debt level because that level has passed the 10 trillion dollar mark.  The plan is to install a new debt clock that can calculate our debt up to a quadrillion dollars.  That would be 1 plus 15 zeros or one thousand million million dollars.  A number that is almost incomprehensible.  And yet the change is symbolic not only of the difficulties we face with keeping track of our growing and staggering debt obligations, but also of the manner in which this current economic crisis will impact our future.