ljuneau

Federal obligations exceed world GDP
Does $65.5 trillion terrify anyone yet?

Very enlightening article. What is scary is that this article reflects 2008 figures and does not yet take into account the giant stimulus bill that just passed.

Who is going to bail out our ravenous government?

Holy Diver

Exxon....?

maverick4

Nobody. China and Japan's economies are going down so our normal saviors can't help us this time.

Our obligations are over 5x GDP.

Would you buy a million dollar home with a combined household income of 200k?

Harry Boy

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PatsFanInVa

The bulk of what we're looking at there are the Social Security and Medicare entitlements.

This will also be in large part the source of the "Gray vs. Everybody" battle that is coming. It is not today's problem, however.

The numbers I've seen for those two programs are 53 trillion bucks. That number may be more or less recent than the one quoted here. The problem is that we don't have that much money. Nobody does.

It's well known that we have to address the retirement entitlements. It is a matter of when.

The recent spending orgy that put us 10 trillion in present debt (as opposed to adding future obligations from entitlements) indeed pales by comparison, as does Obama's slight increases to Bush's orgy. It is likely that Obama may even turn out to be a spender of Bush's caliber over the next few years; we will see.

However, the question of entitlements is separate from either of these administrations. It is a simple matter of reducing benefits, changing the retirement age, or means-testing.

I am interested, however, in the OP's ideas on how to address the eventual demographic earthquake represented by the baby-boomers' "big cash-out."

PFnV

Patters

Worse yet, corporate debt and private debt is way higher than government debt. Who's going to bail them out?

America's Total Debt Report - page 2 - by MWHodges

Run DMC

Why doesn't anyone ever mention the trillions we have wasted and continue to waste on military spending? Maintaining an empire destroyed the Romans, more recently the Soviets, and next, us.

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ljuneau

Honestly? I have no freegin idea. I don't see any easy fair answer.

Triple-T

PFnV summed this up nicely...it's all about social security.

When the SSA was established, the retirement age was 65 and average life expectancy was about ~63. Now, the retirement age is 67 and average life expectancy is ~78. Re-align those numbers to how it was at the establishment the SSA and this problem starts to solve itself.

Then we can deal with everything else the fed is screwing up. Maybe up the gas tax to drive some revenue. ; )

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PressCoverage

SS? no, i think it's a little bigger than that....

look, ... it's over...

people need to just accept it...

99.9% have been hijacked by the top .1%...this is just another predicted, incremental step....

of course the US is bankrupt... it assigned its entire derivative-based economy on the commodity of cheap crude oil... unfortunately, nature has made it clear that that commodity is quite limited... Nixon-Reagan-Clinton never heeded Hubbert's words, or never cared.... yet, our gluttonous interest-based system just kept chugging along, throwing caution to the wind... and now we're past the bell curve of the commodity... oops...

i don't mean to get off on a rant here, but... Bush cheney knew this was coming years ago.... that's why they hid the Cheney energy taskforce transcripts within their first weeks in office -- all the way to the Supreme Court... no one knows what they talked about to this very day.... that's why their own enterprises got contracts and conjured up a privatized war, replete with well-studied "acceptable" casualty figures ... that's why they billed the Pentagon for $ billions, grabbed what they could, while they could... and got out.... do you think it's a coincidence that oil was $145 a barrel their last summer in office?

then 3 of the biggest 5 (and then 8 of the biggest 12) financial institutions in the world suddenly go on life support, and gas price suddenly halves itself...

ah well... here we are.... all that's left now is for the government to declare itself insolvent...

well, no, that's still a little ways off... but it could happen sooner than some might think... and look, they even managed to have left a black guy holding the bag!... the depravity of this crew that just left never ceases to amaze me... i mean really, if you actually stop and think about what has gone down the past few years -- it is truly awesome. .... such brass ones. ... so utterly cold-hearted ...


i'd say hope for the very best, and plan for the very worst...

if you have any semblance of savings, the best thing you can do right now is diversify 1/2 of it (including in various metals), and spend the rest of it on **** you'll need in a post industrial age.... period... that's gear, tools, perishables, wood burning stove, ... etc. ... maybe a mastiff or two... ... get friendly with your neighbors.... get local...

if your dwelling has a fireplace, great... an irrigable yard and room for plots with clean soil? even better... access to clean drinking water? best... you're way ahead of the game... be grateful, because most people will be without...

but guess what? when the **** hits the fan, your government and your corporations? they don't give a ***** about you... they're bankrupt anyway... they won't be around to deliver bread and water, or flush your turds...

still have your doubts? ... just think to yourself what would happen in this country right now if an Andrew hit Miami, or a fault-line snapped in California...

we.... are..... broke.....

good luck....

classic...... it f'n should