Bankrupt Clock

Default Clock
Set params
Financial Projection

Inspiration

The US government is about to pass another legislature that will increase our debt by 1 trillion dollars+. This is just another one in a series of financially irresponsible legislatures that came from both political parties. It is clear that there is no political will to address this issue at all. Elon Musk's retreat from reining in government overspending just highlights how serious this problem is. We think our unique experience in finance and web development will give us an edge to present the problem with more clarity and urgency.

What it does

Estimate when the US government will go mathematically bankrupt, aka when total government receipts cannot cover interest expense alone. The clock takes in three parameters: interest rate, receipts growth, and non-interest expenses growth, and return how long we will have until bankruptcy. Currently we are using these default parameters:

Interest rate: 3.04%, current effective interest rate
Receipts growth: 4.96%, based on average last 10 years
Expenses growth: 7.80%, based on average last 10 years Given these three default parameters, we will go bankrupt in 2062.

How we built it

We use 21st.dev to explore inspiration on a countdown animation that would be most impactful, then select one that would match our need for impact and urgency. We next build an simple financial model on Google Sheet then translate that logic into our app.

Challenges we ran into

Establishing trust with our historical data. We eventually found credible financial data from the US Treasury department and Federal Reserve.
Making sure the logic flows correctly, we want this clock to be as reliable and high-trust as possible.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We accomplished what we set out to do. A clock that highlights the urgency and certainty of this problem.

What we learned

using Bolt to improve UI and Netlify to deploy

What's next for Bankrupt Clock

improve shareability by making the params as query param so people can share scenarios better
currently only projects out to 2100, expand time window beyond 2100
add scenarios in addition to straightline scenarios