The US national debt is growing by $3.24 billion per day.

Last month, it passed the $10 trillion mark, forcing operators of the National Debt Clock in New York's Times Square to use the section of the display previously reserved for the dollar sign to switch it to a one. 

When the clock was commissioned 19 years ago, its designers only needed to display a measly $2.7 trillion bucks, but due to astute financial management, the sign no longer has enough digits to display the $10,228,820,521,514.07 figure required at the time of writing.

But what's bad news for most people is good news for Douglas Durst - the son of the man who built the clock - he's been asked to build a new one with an extra two digits.

Of course, if the US was still part of the British Empire and used a proper currency, the sign would still have digits to spare. Alternatively, shooting a few economists and bankers is always a good option. X

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Debt Clock