For the Debt Paying Generation, huge burdens, high inflation, and a weakened economy.
William Beach and Dustin Siggins
National Review Online
3/7/2011
A news alert for the Debt Paying Generation: President Obama’s budget for Fiscal Year 2012 brings the national debt from $14.1 trillion to nearly $26.4 trillion by 2021. This will take the amount of debt per working American by the end of this fiscal year — all 153,000,000 of them — from $101,150 to more than $161,631. Young Americans are going to get hammered by this debt if entitlement, welfare, and defense reforms are not under way within the next two to five years.
Those 115 million Americans between 5 and 30 years old are going to have to absorb virtually all of this debt. In earlier pieces, we outlined our take on the matter, and how few members of Congress are willing to stand up for the interests of the under-30 generation. Today, we’d like to highlight a warning from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has been sending warning shots across our bow for almost a year, and just the last January released yet another report warning of economic pain and disruption for Americans if we don’t get our debt under control…
…According to Claudia Reinhart and Hugh Rogoff, authors of the best-selling This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, countries that amass public debt above 90 percent of GDP inevitably experience sharply slower economic growth and usually debilitating inflation. That means that the Debt Paying Generation could end up with lower incomes and devalued investments while bearing the biggest debt burden in human history. Say hello to virtually no savings and no retirement…
The complete article is at NRO
