The Federal government now has only $54 billion in cash in the bank.

That's $2 billion less than the net worth of Bill Gates, as frequent BI commenter @ComfortablySmug points out on Twitter.

Ouch.

People had been writing that the US's cash balance had gotten so bad that it was less than some companies. Now it's so bad that it's less than some people.

Terrible, terrible. It just goes to show that Congress needs to get its act together now and raise the debt ceiling.

(Of course, net worth and cash on hand are different concepts, so it's kind of comparing apples and oranges, but what matters is that it's a powerful symbol.)

Is The US Governed By A Buch Of Utter, Irresponsible Wackjobs? →