That's a pretty link, but one that suffers badly from a lack of sourcing or context. The 'about' page says 'all debt clocks are updated constantly to the most precise calculations using complex formulas and exacting standards, and are verified from multiple sources.'
A pity that these exacting standards do not apply to the grammar on that page, which is a poor indicator for the quality of the (secret) formulas. As for the multiple sources, this may be true, but I am skeptical of a website with no names attached and registered in secret through domainsbyproxy.com, a GoDaddy spinoff which seems to provide registration services for a disproportionate number of GOP-friendly websites.
Not, mind you, that alarmist number vomit is the sole preserve of the GOP. One could find plenty of Democrats willing to scream with equal horror about the idea of $644 trillion in outstanding derivatives, without pausing to consider the global scope, long temporal horizon, or purely notional value of such a figure.
I'm sorry to be a pompous prick in response to what is probably a sincere desire to highlight issues you believe to be important. But I think to discuss them most effectively, you need to hone your arguments and your sources. I know it's hard to strike a balance between the dramatic statistic which highlights the urgency of an issue and the demands of accuracy, which can obscure that urgency with a mass of contextual and qualifying data.
You're not being a pompous prick at all; in fact, your arguments are thorough and to the point. And I do admit I am using dramatic statistics, but it is because I am trying to present evidence to an audience unfamiliar to the area of topic.
And the statistics are dramatic ....well...because they are. That's how bad things are.
I think an old saying really applies here. If you owe the rest of the world $1 million, it's your problem. If you owe the rest of the world $100 trillion, it's their problem.
Derivatives, overall, are a zero-sum game. Unless by some miracle of improbability all the liabilities fall on the US side, there is no way it's going to add up to 200T, unless US companies have been incredibly foolish - and I think the foolishness has been reasonably evenly spread around.
