SHOULD YOU BE CONCERNED ABOUT OUR GROWING NATIONAL DEBT?

The New York Times yesterday showed the following.

It was 14 years ago when I published in the Huffington Post:  THE SIMPLEST SOLUTION FOR OUR NATIONAL DEBT...

• And I said, this simplest solution was to INCREASE it.
• Note, find 2014 on the above graph, and when you do, our national debt seems to be on an exponential rise, and projected to zoom up even faster if the Trump Beautiful Bill passes.
• Does it really matter?
• Maybe not.
• In my article, I intimated that most of you (the readers) equate our national debt to your personal debt.  We all want to minimize what we owe.
• Further, to quote from that article.

You feel that our government has irresponsibly built up a $14.3 trillion burden and can't any more tolerate this travesty, for just the interest in this loan is crippling our economy. Wrong! Or, at least, suboptimal.

• 14 years ago, our national debt was $14.3 trillion.  Now?  $36.2 trillion.
• How has the USA done financially?
• By any measure of comparison, great, although the irrational manner President Trump is handling the economy with those crazy tariffs does seriously worry me.
• Nevertheless, note how we've grown since 2014.  And this occurred as our national debt increased from $14.3 trillion to  $36.2 trillion!

• We've also performed a lot better during the past decade than all our competitors.

• In productivity growth, only South Korea is up there with us.

In my HuffPo of a decade ago, I also said:

The global society is essentially a free enterprise economy. If you owned a very large company, you borrow at low interest to make a profit. This is exactly what the USA is doing.

I ended with:

Let us return to this enterprise called the USA. Our debt as a percentage of the Gross National Product is around 60 percent, very similar to Germany. Japan is at 190 percent, but this is mostly owed to their citizenry, for which the government has always paid out at less than one percent. Worry about Fukushima, but that debt percentage is not Japan's problem. For the past decade, the USA has borrowed at an almost constant 3 percent. A terrific rate, if you're a company. As long as this interest remains at this relatively low level, surely, this "borrowed" sum must be accruing a higher percentage of "benefits."

It really doesn't matter what interest rate you use, for they all follow the same pattern.  Take the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.

While the pandemic brought up interest rates, they largely still remained below the historical average red line.  As long as this particular interest rate remains below that red line, owing money does not hurt our economic competitive position.  If this rate zooms up above that line, other countries will borrow our money, so we would then reduce our national debt, while taking advantage of lending at high interest rates.  We can't lose either way.  Think about this and if you never get it, you're normal.

Thus, should you be concerned about our national debt?  As long as our Federal government borrows when interest rates are low, and lends when they are high, our country should do fine.

But then again, who am I?  What do I really know about financing?  From Time:

Updated: MAY 28, 2025 7:22 AM HAST

Elon Musk Says Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill ‘Undermines’ DOGE by Raising National Debt

Also, Musk summarized his “personal opinion” in the CBS interview clip, saying: “I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful. But I don't know if it can be both.”  He's the richest man in the world.  He's around 500,000 times wealthier than me.  Makes more sense to listen to him.  But I still think there is something to my theory about the national debt.

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WHAT IS THE LARGEST SNAKE?

Talking about largest snakes, last week one of my postings was entitled, A COMING TRUMP DICTATORSHIP?  Someone e-mailed me this link of Senator Chris Murphy's speech on the Senate floor, also sounding an alarm about President Trump's coordinated effort to dismantle democracy.  Watch it! 

The Florida Museum reports that the Titanoboa is the largest snake that ever lived.  Perhaps up to 50 feet long 2500 pounds and 3 feet wide, was the largest predator on the planet after the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.  However, 23 million years ago came the Megalodon.  Okay, a deviation, for this was not a snake. Several films, but there are so few remains, that there can only be estimates of size:  perhaps 47 feet to 80 feet long and at most, 200,000 pounds. However, this is about 10 times larger that an adult Great White Shark.  Here are two comparisons.

Today, the Green Anaconda is the longest and heaviest snake in the world:  30 feet and 550 pounds.  Well, then again, other reports indicate that the Reticulated Python can reach 32 feet, but it weighs only up to 320 pounds.  The heaviest Burmese Python caught in the annual Florida Python Challenge was 19 feet long and 215 pounds.  Had a hundred eggs.

Here is recent video of one in the Everglades.  And, by the way, if you have nothing better to do and want to win $10,000, the 2025 Florida Python Challenge is from July 11 until July 20.  Size does not matter, the victor is the participant who removes the most Burmese pythons.  Info on registration here.  Over the past dozen years of the challenge, more than a thousand pythons have been caught.

By the way, one of the world's smallest snakes can be found in Hawaii.  We are home to the Brahminy Blind Snake (can detect light), which is non-venomous.  About 6 inches long, it feeds on ants and termites.  Came to Hawaii in the 1930s in potting soil from the Philippines.  Alas, this is not the smallest snake, which is the Barbados threadsnake (below) only discovered in Barbados in 2008.  It is only 4 inches long.

One concern in Hawaii is about the potential infestation of the Brown Tree Snake (BTS) from Guam.  At least eight of them were found in Hawaii between 1981 and 1998, associated with movement of civilian military vehicles and cargo from Guam.  The USDA National Wildlife Research Center puts the possible cost to Hawaii of the BTS at $1.7 billion/year if introduced to Hawaii.  If you see this snake, call 911 or 643-pest immediately!

For the record, the BTS:

• Is nocturnal, and mostly lives in trees,
• Can be up to 9 feet long.
• Native to the South Pacific, New Guinea and Northern Australia.
• Introduced to Guam in the 1940's hidden in cargo.
• Responsible for the extinction of up to 13 forest bird species and three types of lizards.  Terns, noddys and shearwaters no longer next on Guam.
• Because of the absence of birds and lizards, there has been a rise in the abundance of insects, which affects crop production.
• The BTS causes frequent electrical power outages by climbing power lines and getting into transformers and electrical boxes.  
• At one time, the population was around 50 snakes/acre.  Has no predator on Guam.  Efforts were made, and the infestation is now down to as low as 10 snakes/acre.

I don't know of any snake songs, but, some people do this.

• Here are the top 50 snake songs.  
• And 50 more.  
• ZZ Top with Tube Snake Boogie.
• You've heard this "snake" song, which is an Arabian folk song, sometimes called The Streets of Cairo and "the snake charmer song."

• 
  Of course snake charmers in India don't use any of the above.
• Here is one using a flute.
• Traditional street performer with his Cobra.
• Beautiful Indian Music called Snake Charmers.
• Generally used is the pungi, a Hindu fold music reed pipe instrument.
• Here is The Snake Charmer from Scotland to end this divergence.

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MEMORIAL DAY

For some, Memorial Day is the start of summer.  For many others, this is a national holiday to go shopping or rest or whatever.  For the nation, this a celebratory day established to honor those who gave their life to preserve freedom and liberty.   Call it a celebration of life.  This is also your special day for patriotism.  

Specifically for me, observation began last night watching the 2025 National Memorial Day Concert on the Mall, as I've been doing now for 36 years, except for 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.  This show is also beamed to more than 175 countries and aboard more than 200 U.S. Navy ships at sea.  Up to half a million people watch in person.

I especially revere this occasion because of another Mall event, A Capitol Fourth, the concert of the National Symphony Orchestra that began on July in 1979.  Went to the first one, and three more.  The 1980 concert was the first to be telecasted nationwide, hosted by E.G. Marshall, and featuring Pearl Bailey.  Annually, his is the highest-rated show on PBS.  I just happened to work for the U.S. Senate from 1979 to 1982.

Of course there was yet another Donald Trump controversy:

In February 2019, Trump announced on Twitter plans for a "Salute to America" celebration on Independence Day, promising entertainment, a "major" fireworks display and "an address by your favorite President, me!" It was later revealed that this speech would be given from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.^[5][6] Trump would become the first president to speak there since Harry Truman marked the 175th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in an address from the National Mall on Independence Day, 1951.^[7]  The producers of A Capitol Fourth distanced themselves from the president's planned festivities, emphasizing they were an independent and separate event.^[8][9] Due to Trump's presence, the Federal Aviation Administration suspended flights at Reagan Airport during the event.^[10]

The fireworks were huge because the two events separately had this display, back to back.  Only the Fox News Channel continually aired Trump's Salute.  And Trump did what he said he would not do.  Spoke for 47 minute promoting his 2020 presidential re-election campaign, defying the Hatch Act.  Continuing his campaign efforts, Trump repeated with Salute to America 2020, taking advantage of A Capitol Fourth planners cancelling their event because of the pandemic.

In a way, Trump is back again to compete, for his Administration announced the U.S. Army 250th Anniversary Parade in DC on June 14, 2025.  It amazingly happens to coincide with his 79th birthday.  It has to be linked to him in some personal way.  Also, this happens to be our Semiquincentennial.  Yes, it will be 250 years after 1776.

The parade is expected to involve 6,600 soldiers (from at least 11 corps and divisions nationwide), at least 150 vehicles, 50 helicopters, seven bands and several thousand civilians.^[1][3] The Army is expecting to spend anywhere from $25 million to $45 million.^[4]

Just how many died in the major wars?  Deaths:  1,308,464 (1,452,040 injured)

• American Revolutionary War     23,800
• War of 1812                                15,000
• Mexico-American War               13,283
• Civil War                                  655,000
• Spanish-American War                2,446
• Philippine War and Rebellion      4,196
• World War 1                              116,516 (note that there were also 
•                                                                  204,002 injured)
• World War 2                              403,399 (670,846 injured)
• Korean War                                 36,574  (103,284 injured)
• Vietnam War                               58,220  (153,303 injured)
• Afghanistan War                           2,325  (20,093 injured)
• Iraq War                                        4,492  (32,222 injured)

Time provides 10 surprising facts about Memorial Day.

• Was originally called Decoration Day at the end of the Civil War in 1865.  Graves of fallen Union soldiers in their hometown were decorated with flowers.  May was selected because that was when flowers bloomed.  Also in May 1865, formerly enslaved Black community members in Charleston held a ceremony and parade at the site of a former racetrack where 260 Union soldiers were buried in a mass grave.  They called this the First Decoration Day.

• 
  In 1868, General John Logan called on former soldiers and their communities to conduct ceremonies and decorate graves of their dead comrades.  Many consider Logan to be the founder of Memorial Day.
• However, it took until 1968 for Congress to pass the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, where Memorial Day became an official holiday.  The last Monday of May was selected so it could be a three-day weekend.  President Lyndon Johnson, when he signed the Act named Waterloo, New York as the birthplace of Memorial Day.  This law went into effect in 1971.
• Other Anglo-European countries have their Memorial Day or Remembrance Day on November 11.

• 
  The U.S. began honoring November 11 as Veterans Day from the end of World War 1, also known as Armistice Day.  This day honors all of those who served in the U.S. Military.  Memorial Day focuses on soldiers who have died.
• Interestingly enough, you would think it would be the other way around, but Armistice/Veterans Day is publicly viewed with solemnity, while Memorial Day features parades, songs, barbecues and such.
• Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina still recognize Confederate Memorial Day by closing state offices on either April 22 or May 10.

• 
  You'd think Donald Trump would be one to go golfing on Memorial Day, but he did what most presidents have done, pay tribute to fallen service members at Arlington National Cemetery, honoring the "great, great warriors."  But he also, in his speech, attacked his Democratic predecessors and called federal judges who have blocked his initiatives as "monsters who want our country to go to hell."  Yet, at Arlington, where 400,000 have been laid to rest, he commemorated the sacrifice of service members and singled out several Gold Star families.  But he couldn't resist:

“Their valor,” he said, “gave us the freest, greatest and most noble republic ever to exist on the face of the earth. A republic that I am fixing after a long and hard four years.”

• 
  45 million Americans are expected to travel at least 50 miles from home over this weekend, which would be record-setting.  Another 3.61 million Americans will fly.
• Most stores are open today, but this is one of seven annual holidays observed by Costco.
• If you missed it and want to watch the National Memorial Day Concert 2025, click on this.  If short of time, here is just the 4-minute Armed Forces Medley.

• 
  There was no cold opening for Saturday Night Live on Saturday, but that is because the Finale Recap occurred on May 17.  Here is a 5-minute collage of the 50th season with Scarlett Johansson.  

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MY TWO STAGES OF LIFE

Sundays are sometimes spiritual and occasionally reflective.  So today I'll look at my 84 years of life in that manner because it took 42 years of development to allow for the latter 42 years of progress.

To begin;

• I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and was a little more than a year old when my mother held me in her arms and pointed to the smoke emanating from Pearl Harbor on 7December1941.  Of course I don't remember any of that, and not much about World War II either.

• 
  Growing up in the "fishing village" of Kakaako, which is now at the edge of the expanding Ward complex of high rises, life was easy.
• After graduating from McKinley High School, I went to Stanford University, departing in 1962 with a degree in chemical engineering, to work for C. Brewer as a sugar trainee at the Hutchinson Sugar Company.  

• 
  I made this "sacrifice" because most of my close friends chose to join the first year of the Peace Corps.  They went off to places in Africa and the South Pacific, while I ended up  in Naalehu on the Big Island, the southernmost city in the USA, where I couldn't even receive radio signals, and, of course, no television.

• 
  My 7 years in the sugar industry also took me to Kauai, where I learned about my roots.
• Having grown up in Honolulu, I knew so little about things like luaus and living in a small community.  
• Job was from 9AM to 6PM, working 12 days and 2 days off, with calls at night when the factory had a problem.  Most difficult work experience I would have in my entire life.  
• But I learned a lot about how to survive and enjoy life.
• 
  Also met a nurse, Pearl, who became my wife.
• C. Brewer continued to pay my salary when they sent me off to graduate school in 1969, but it had to be Louisiana State University because they had the only sugar degree, which was conveniently in the chemical engineering department.
• I talked the company to allow me to continue for a PhD in biochemical engineering.

• 
  Returned home in 1972 to join the College of Engineering at the University of Hawaii.
• During the next decade, I got involved in renewable energy because of the Energy Crisis, and also spent time at the NASA Ames Research Center on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence and two summers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in laser fusion.
• 
  In 1979 I joined the staff of U.S. Senator Spark Matsunaga in DC, and managed the passage of legislation in deep seabed mining, ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) wind energy and hydrogen.  This Hydrogen Act seeded the developmental R&D which someday will be lead to the Hydrogen Economy.  That Hard Mineral Act, after 45 years of incubation has suddenly been revived by President Donald Trump.  The combination of OTEC and hydrogen led me to develop something called the Blue Revolution.
• I finally returned to the University of Hawaii in 1982.

Thus, it took 42 years of education and gaining experience to get me to stage 2 of my life.  The second 42 years was a lot more enjoyable and progressive.

• I became professor of engineering and director of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (HNEI).

• 
  Also with Paul Yuen, who was dean of engineering, created the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research.  We were able to secure $25 million projects from the Department of Energy for building an OTEC plant on the Big Island and a biofuels facility to produce methanol on Maui.
• HNEI became the national research center for the Department Interior's Marine Mineral Technology Institute, Department of Energy's Hydrogen Research and Education Center and National Science Foundation Marine Research Bioproducts Engineering Center.  The combination of these led to the Blue Revolution.

• 
  My dual roles allowed me to travel the world, where I am now approaching 3 million miles just on Star Alliance.
• After 15 years directing HNEI, I retired, but retained my office on the Manoa Campus.  It has been 53 years since I first arrived.
• 
  Wrote a couple books in the 1990s, and three more after I retired.  Reported for the Huffington Post, where I published more than 100 articles, condensed in my SIMPLE SOLUTION Essays.  Also began this blog site in 2008, so it has been 17 years of daily postings.  You know how long this is?  Picture yourself:
• Starting kindergarten.
• Then going to school until you graduate from high school.
• College for four years.  
• In this 17th year, you graduate.
• While students have weekends off and holidays, I continue daily, every day.

Let's see, now, in Stage 3, I should be able to witness the development of the Blue Revolution, Hydrogen Society and Laser Fusion.  Of course, at the end of this period it would be 2067 and I would be 126 years old.  Something tells me this won't happen because the longest documented and verified human lifespan is that of Jeanne Louise Calment of France, who lived for 122 years.

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LARGEST COMPANIES...RICHEST CITIES

What are the largest companies in the world?  Nine of the top ten are from the USA.  We have long been the greatest.

Note that #5 shows Google in parentheses next to Alphabet, and #7 has Facebook as part of Meta.  What happened?

Google, as you know reinvented the way the world accesses information.  Why restructure?

• Without much warning in 2015, Google renamed itself Alphabet.

• This allowed the parent, Alphabet, to expand into domains outside of internet search and advertising.
• Google now runs a lesser risk of antitrust violations.

• 
  You might get confused by GOOG and GOOGL, stock ticker symbols of Alphabet.  I won't try to explain it, but you can click here for details.

• 
  52-year old Sundar Pichai (originally, Pichai Sundararajan) is the CEO of Alphabet, while founders Larry Page (52) and Sergey Brin (53) no longer are involved in daily operations.  Sundar's compensation last year was $10.72 million.

• Note that Alphabet is the 5th largest company in market cap.  It is the 3rd largest in technology company in annual revenues, to Amazon and Apple.  But #11 in the world in annual revenues.

• 
  In revenues, the USA is still terrific, but not great, for we rank #1 with Walmart and #2 Amazon,  plus #7-#11.  Actually, Jeff Bezos earlier this year Instagrammed this out.
• Interestingly enough, Alphabet ranks #2 with a profit last year of $100 million to Saudi Aramco's $106 million. Six American companies ranked in the top ten.
• Incidentally, Google dominates its field, with 91% of all searches.

Regarding Facebook, it also rebranded itself, in 2021, to broaden its social media capabilities and focus on the metaverse, by similarly creating Meta as the parent company.

• Thus Meta is a word-play on METAverse.

• 
  What is a metaverse?  It is a virtual, immersive world where people can interact using virtual and augmented reality.
• Meta allows the company to move from a social media focus to the next generation of technology platforms, while distancing itself from concerns about privacy and misinformation.

• 
  Meta diversified its portfolio by acquiring Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus VR.
• Note that companies in general re-brand itself following mergers and restructuring.  As for example, in 1996, Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz merged too form Novartis.  To insulate itself from brand image suffering, Phillip Morris and Kraft rebranded themselves as Altria.
• 
  Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook/Meta, has linked the new brand name to his strategic plan to create a metaverse — a virtual world in which consumers spend increasing parts of their lives, based on AI and virtual reality (VR) technology. This is an important new phase in the digital world.

• 
  Mark Zuckerberg's primary residence is a compound in Palo Alto, California, which he assembled through strategic purchases of neighboring properties.  He also owns a sprawling estate in Hawaii, specifically on Kauai, and a lakefront compound in Lake Tahoe. Additionally, he recently purchased a large mansion (right) in Washington, D.C..  Read about  his $300 million property portfolio.  $187million for 1400 acres on Kauai, plus another $100 million in construction costs (below).  His move to DC joins other billionaires linking to President Donald Trump, with a $23 million mansion (above), 15,400 square feet in the exclusive Massachusetts Avenue Heights neighborhood.

• Want more information?  Read the details here.

Finally, the wealthiest cities in the world.  Our travels this past year have included the top three.  And, our coming winter odyssey will include a cruise that starts in #2 Tokyo, ends in #3 Singapore, and on another ship from there, will take us to #8 Hong Kong.

• #1 is New York City.
• 384,500 millionaires.  Growth: 45%.
• 66 billionaires.

• 
  #2 is The Bay Area of San Francisco.
• 342,000 millionaires.  Growth: 98%.
• 82 billionaires.

• 
  #3 is Tokyo.
• 292,300 millionaires.  Growth: 4%.
• 18 billionaires.
• #4 is Singapore.
• 242,400 millionaires.  Growth: 62%.
• 30 billionaires. 

• 
  #5 is Los Angeles.
• 220,600 millionaires.  Growth: 35%.
• 45 billionaires.
• #6 London, #7 Paris, #8 Hong Kong, #9 Sydney and #10 Chicago.

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