One giant debt for mankind: U.S. national deficit would reach almost to the moon if piled high in $5 bills

• * U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said the United States borrows about $125billion per month.

With that amount, the United States could buy each of its more than 300 million residents an Apple Inc iPad.

• * In a 31-day month, that means the United States borrows about $4 billion per day.

A stack of dimes equivalent to that amount would wrap all the way around the Earth with change to spare.

• * In one hour, the United States borrows about $168 million, more than it paid to buy Alaska in 1867, converted to today's dollars.

In two hours, the United States borrows more than it paid France for present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and the rest of the land obtained by the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.

• * The U.S. government borrows more than $40,000 per second. That's more than the cost of a year's tuition, room and board at many universities.