US debt six times greater than declared - study

The United States has accumulated over $70 trillion in unreported debt, an amount nearly six times the declared figure, according to a new study by University of California-San Diego economics Professor James Hamilton.

Much of the current debt load is a direct result of the Great Recession of 2008, which saw an unprecedented effort on the part of Washington to rescue the US economy from financial ruin.

These numbers are so huge it is hard even to discuss them in a coherent way,” he said before providing a caveat on the US demographic situation. “The US population is aging, and an aging population means fewer people paying in and more people expecting benefits. This reality is unambiguously going to be a key constraint on the sustainability of fiscal policy for the United States.

"If you add up all the promises that have been made for spending obligations, including defense expenditures, and you subtract all the taxes that we expect to collect, the difference is $211 trillion. That's the fiscal gap," Kotlikoff said in an interview with National Public Radio. "That's our true indebtedness."

rt.com...






You guys bailed everyone else out....can you folks spare a dime ?

Is it only Russia Today that sees this as newsworthy?

Sad thing.

*this is false, satire*

"A Professor of economics from the University of California-San Diego, James Hamilton was killed in a single bicycle accident early this morning. James was riding his bicycle close to his home when it veered off the sidewalk, traveling at speeds reaching almost 15mph. He is thought to have lost balance, hitting a parked car causing both to explode, killing the professor instantly.

The police reports that foul play is not suspected and have closed the case, they have also confirmed the melting down of all debris left from the incident, shortly after a top level CIA document arrived at the local precinct"


I can see the new headlines tomorrow: "If its true and was a secret, but you told everyone, you have committed treason and will be disappeared"

Our true debt, excluding future obligations that could be cancelled is a little less than 30 trillion from what I figured before. It was about 26 but I am sure it is now thirty, that was over a year ago.

I'm not quite getting where people pick these "true debt" figures? "true debt" would be what we actually owe in absolute dollars to my thinking. 70 trillion is counting future payout obligations and choosing a dollar figure from a distant year?

By that figuring, I could say the national debt is actually 25 Trillion....



We just need to get to 2022 to see it. The "real" debt is what the debt says it is. Just under 17 trillion at the moment and the budgets for the last century or more are at the White House site, among others, for all to see how it got here. $1 at a time, each year, like clockwork.

The nation can't pay back the 17 trillion unless interest somehow halted forever on the money and then, politicians cared to even try. So it's kinda moot as to how screwed we are ..but 70 is as accurate as saying we owe a gazillion dollars (we'll hear that number used at some point at this rate)...we'd just need to look years further for the study time frame to find that threshold?

A lot of work for a new 'big' number to scare the public by. Look at the 200+ trillion in estimated derivative obligations between the big banks. lol.....and keep in mind all the gold ever mined on Planet Earth would, if it all still existed, total up around 7 - 8 trillion. That's it.

most of this "debt" is merely THEIR own personal enrichment schemes, they then pass the expense/costs to others

If they can't show your signature, it is not your debt...