Saw an interesting tweet today about paying down the deficit by getting rid of Alaska. We purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million USD back in the 19th century. Surely it's appreciated.
Of course if we focused on the gas and oil in Alaska (approximately 35 billion barrels of oil and 137 trillion cubic feet of natural gas according to this) then the value jumps somewhat.
Right now, a barrel of oil sells for @$84. With 35 billion barrels, we would be looking at around $2.9 trillion in value.
Natural gas is a little more complicated as we have to convert the cubic feet to BTU's. One cubic foot equals 1,020 BTU and the current price is $3.77/BTU. So we wind up with $526 quadrillion in value.
Surprised that something out there actually dwarfs the real US deficit of around $86 trillion. This includes the unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare - not the cooked books the government typically provides.
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