The Coming Generational Storm

Lawrence Kotlikoff, professor of Economics at Boston University, describes the coming generational storm in the following paper made available through his website, "Is The US Bankrupt?" http://people.bu.edu/kotlikoff/Is%20the%20United%20States%20Bankrupt.pdf Kotlikoff uses methods of generational accounting to show that current and future expenditures by our government will be unsustainable. We will not be able to remain solvent to our obligations to T-Bill holders and Social Security pensioners, medicare recipients. The net effect will be hyperinflation, astronomical taxation on the young, and eviscerating the entitlement programs themselves.

*Just a note about pessimism and truth. I have often described the concerns for peak oil and the effects of the downward side of that curve on our way of life. Here is an altogether separate set of concerns, equally catastrophic, to be factored into planning for the future. Both of these scenarios are depressing, but they are not "pessimistic". They are accurate accounts of what is to come. Because our society is so thoroughly shaped by consumer preferences, it stands to reason that much of the news--depressing as it actually is--is actually driven by the need to paint more optimistic views of the future than the facts warrant. Human beings cannot take looking at severely bleak depictions of reality before they shut off--or, as the option exists at present, to simply change the channel. But we are approaching a time when these effects will become manifest, not simply living in theoretical projections about the future. Dear Reader, be aware and remember these truths. Don't delude yourself. Don't imagine things will "get better". Prepare now, to the extent that you are able, for a future of perhaps hyperinflation, outrageously high gas and energy prices, and the evisceration of jobs and social safety nets. The empire is stretched to the heft and the fibers are starting to snap. Look whats in the bag and consider why things are unfolding the way they are.