Just A Little Sloppy Record-Keeping? The Pentagon's $35 Trillion 'Accounting Black Hole'

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by Tyler Durden

Wed, 02/05/2020 - 23:45

Over the past two weeks of coronavirus headlines and heightened global anxiety, along with impeachment coverage and after over the Super Bowl weekend Americans huddled in living rooms in blissful oblivion, a story which in more normal times would be front and center has gone largely unnoticed. To be sure, the Pentagon couldn't be happier that this bombshell has taken a back burner in global headlines:

The Pentagon made $35 trillion in accounting adjustments last year alone — a total that’s larger than the entire U.S. economy and underscores the Defense Department’s continuing difficulty in balancing its books.

The latest estimate is up from $30.7 trillion in 2018 and $29 trillion in 2017, the first year adjustments were tracked in a concerted way, according to Pentagon figures and a lawmaker who’s pursued the accounting morass.

It sounds more appropriately news out of The Onion or Babylon Bee given this is Trillions and not just billions — though that itself would have been remarkable enough. Naturally, the first and only question we should start with is: how is this even possible?