Or to put it more realistically (as the article states), one of several things must happen at some point in the future:
1. we must raise all federal taxes by a huge amount (double if we did it today) 2. we must cut future social security/medicare benefits promises by 2/3. 3. we must default on our national debt. Number 3 is the really scary one, the Russia/Mexico/Asian banking crisis scary one, because our economy is so big other nations could not step in and rescue us like the world rescued these other economies. If countries like China and Japan believe that we are drifting toward number 3, they will stop buying our debt (assuming it will not be paid back), the value of the dollar will plummet, and we'll all be in big f-ing trouble. What will probably happen is a fourth alternative, some ridiculous series of patches approved by members of Congress who will not be around to worry about the crisis we will be falling into later on. On 7/17/06, Gruss wrote: > > > gMoney wrote: > > Can you also post some of your links from a couple of years ago....the > ones > > that had us bankrupt in 6 months....??? I wanna see how they differ from > > today's "were gonna be bankrupt in 6 months" articles. > > > > Heh, good question. They're both right! As Chairman Kotlikoff > states, technically we're already bankrupt. That's where it gets > tricky though ... what does "bankrupt" mean? > > In this case it means that our liabilities outweigh our assets and so > we're bankrupt. The assumption, however, is that somehow we'll change > our liabilities. The problem is that everyday we wait to do that, the > proposed solution becomes more painful to those at risk most: Baby > Boomers. And, of course, there'll likely be other consequences for > the rest of us. > > Other things I've talked about like devaluation of the dollar, etc. > But read the article. > > The problem with all issues like this is that it's like Enron. There > were people 5 years before the crumble that warned it was going to > happen. Was it a certainty? No. Wall St kept pumping money in! But > the trend was there and nobody did anything to change the trend. > > Well, the trend is here for the US and nobody's doing anything to > change it. As a citizen you have 2 choices: you can be an ant or a > grasshopper. Your question appeals to grasshoppers, Professor > Kotlikoff's article appeals to us ants. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/message.cfm/forumid:5/messageid:211288 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
