This is a simple Android widget for cupcake (1.5) and later.

It is installed on your homescreen the same as any other widget (long-press your home screen, select widget, and choose a widget).  One attempt is made every eight hours to retrieve the current total US public debt outstanding from treasurydirect.gov .  The widget sleeps between download attempts to be gentle on your CPU and battery.  The public debt data is only updated by the government once on weekdays, and is only current as of the prior weekday.

This app does not constantly display an estimated debt.  That would constantly chew up CPU/battery and keep the phone from sleeping.  It intentionally only hits the treasury website every 8 hours.  The treasury only updates the data once a day and only on weekdays.

The app is intentionally small (1x1 desktop units) so it doesn't use much space.  I could make it much bigger but then it would waste desktop space.

There was a bug in version 1.00 that caused a force close on install depending on how you installed the widget.  Corrected in 1.02.  Enjoy.

Please send any comments to debt.clock@zerohoh.com.