
Government Bailouts: A U.S. Tradition Dating to Hamilton - prakash
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122186662036058787.html?mod=article-outset-box
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quasimojo
we've never done anything on this scale. the debt ceiling will be raised to
11.3 trillion, meaning it will hit 12 trillion by 2011 and 20 trillion by
2020. and that isn't counting the forty or so trillion in unfunded
entitlements like ss and medicare for the boomers.

adding so much more debt at a time when we need to be taking near-fascistic
measures to be reducing it, likely will result in the US repudiating the
dollar by 2025. its over. no nation can issue this much debt and survive.
expect a global ultra-depression when this implodes, punctuated by a major
war.

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dfranke
The situation isn't too dire _yet_. As you can see here:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_debt>, as a percentage of GDP, US
public debt is still comparable to or below many other first-world countries.
But you're absolutely right about unfunded entitlements. If nothing is done,
we'll be soon be on par with Zimbabwe, and it's uncertain whether anything
non-horrific can be done. Those unfunded entitlements are not just an
accounting problem -- they're real material wealth that people are counting on
for their retirement that doesn't exist. The obvious solution is to raise the
retirement age, but you can only raise it so far before people are too old to
be physically capable of work. If any tightrope does exist between
hyperinflation and octogenarians starving in the streets, I question whether
the political will exists to walk it.

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nazgulnarsil
willingness to walk it has to come from knowledge that failure will result in
BOTH.

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dfranke
Agreed, but I don't envy the politician who tries to point that out while
fighting for re-election.

