U.S. national debt hits $40 trillion: Is America in trouble?

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• 00:01

  Cutting through an overload of information to get to the heart of the story.

• 00:06

  This is The Point.

• 00:09

  Is America on the verge of a debt crisis?

• 00:13

  That's the question on many people's minds as the US national debt surpassed US$40 trillion last week.

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  The US Treasury confirmed the threshold had been reached on Wednesday,

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  meaning the US national debt is now double what it was only 10 years ago.

• 00:30

  And...

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  As we speak, it's still climbing, or shall I say skyrocketing.

• 00:34

  Every minute, the U.S.

• 00:36

  National debt is $4.5 million higher, and it has to pay $1.9 million in interest.

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  That's every minute.

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  So what's behind this massive debt?

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  Why is it rising so quickly?

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  And what does this mean for me and for you in front of the TV?

• 00:55

  Is this just America's problem, or shall we all be concerned?

• 01:00

  And opinion show coming to you from Beijing.

• 01:03

  I'm Li Xin.

• 01:04

  Joining me from Singapore, Bert Hoffman,

• 01:06

  senior fellow of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore.

• 01:11

  From Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai province, Wang Dan, China director at the Eurasia Group.

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