The national debt is not weather. Every dollar of it was authorised by a named person in a recorded vote, and the register goes back to 1790 — including the eighteen months in 1835 when the whole thing came to thirty-three thousand dollars. The plate below counts the current figure forward from Treasury's last close and marks the sixteen decisions that bent the line.
A market screen shows you several thousand numbers, of which perhaps five ever reach your house. This is what those five are wired to, and what the rest of the board is for.