USA unfunded obligations; $534,000 per household...

[Billy_Saul]

USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...terstitialskip

The government has promised pension and health benefits worth more than $700,000 per retired civil servant. The pension fund's key asset: federal IOUs.

[Yssup Rider]

OK, BS.

I'm not going to say anything right now, just admire your choice of avatar!

Could have been one of the best ever. Somewhere between the stroke and what caused it, he self destructed too soon!

[kaiser]

We are already past the point where any of this debt will get paid back. The amount of tax increases or service cuts required would be too punitive and counterproductive. Our deficit is already untenable with 0-3% rates, so imagine if they were to rise to more normal 5-6% rates, the interest service costs would be unmanageable. The only option we have is to inflate our way out.

[Booth]

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/201...bush-tax-cuts/

[theaustinescorts]

There used to be a time when government spent only what was collected in taxes.

Every time Congress approved a new military base or increase in the FBI budget it was a HUGE DEAL.

Then it was discovered that this thing called money was just created out of thin air by the banks.....the privately-owned banks which owned the Federal Reserve.

Once it was realized that money was just numbers in an account that could be increased by the stroke of a pen it was all over.

This same problem is played out time and time again, usually in piss-poor little countries like Ghana or El Salvador, when the politicians realize they can get their central banks to just print up whatever they want.

But now it's happened here....in the world's largest economy.

The Federal Reserve is now the only real buyer of US securities...meaning it's just printed out of nothing.

Fiat currency is part of the mantra of conventional economics.

It's not a bad idea if the government isn't corrupt....but that's a stupid assumption history has proved.

Only a radical solution will deal with this.