More on fiscal management- what's a trillion here or there?

I've been having lots of conversations with family, friends and coworkers about debt. No surprise, given the current economic situation.

Leverage is a term that I've found ridiculously overused at work- I'm in talent management, not finance. It reminds me of the good old days in the MBA program when we'd play buzzword bingo, and sometimes, even the professor would play along. Good times had by all. Good times. My fervent hope is that someday people will decide that the term leverage should only be used in financial-speak to take the edge off the term "debt", or in physics and engineering to talk about physical levers, like in explaining the principles of balance scales, wheelbarrows, and teeter-totters. But alas, I fear my hope will be in vain.

Anyway..... here's another great "leverage" article. I still can't wrap my head around $53,000,000,000,000. I know it is a lot of money, I just can't really figure out how much that is.

Commentary: America's $53 trillion debt problem