Marketplace Radio Tells Us the National Debt is a Really Big Number

I have complained at length about news stories that give us really big numbers with no context, which they should know are absolutely meaningless to almost all their listeners. Marketplace Radio did exactly this early in the week when it told listeners in a short segment:

"Here's a big number: $18 trillion. 

"That's the national debt of the United States of America. Yesterday, we surpassed the $18 trillion mark for the first time.

"Partisan and or political inferences will not be ent...