Economist Calls Entitlements A Massive Ponzi Scheme And Says US Is Actually $211 Trillion In Debt

Nothing to see here for Infinite Unknown regulars.

– US National Debt At $14 Trillion? Try $211 Trillion!!! (NPR, August 6, 2011):

“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,” he says. “That’s our true indebtedness.”

– Prof. Kotlikoff: ‘The US is bankrupt’, Government Debt At $200 Trillion – 840 Percent of Current GDP (The Globe And Mail, Oct 27, 2010):

Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff says U.S. government debt is not $13.5-trillion (U.S.), which is 60 per cent of current gross domestic product, as global investors and American taxpayers think, but rather 14-fold higher: $200-trillion – 840 per cent of current GDP. “Let’s get real,” Prof. Kotlikoff says. “The U.S. is bankrupt.”

Got PHYSICAL gold and silver?

– Economist Calls Entitlements A Massive Ponzi Scheme And Says US Is Actually $211 Trillion In Debt (Business Insider, Aug. 31, 2011):

In an interview with NPR, former Reagan economic adviser Laurence Kotlikoff said the U.S.’s “true indebtedness” amounts to $211 trillion.

That’s more than 15 times the $14 trillion official figure.

“We’re focused just on the official debt, so we’re trying to balance the wrong books,” Kotlikoff said, naming Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for the skyrocketing unofficial figure.

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…

Why are these guys thinking about balancing the budget?…They should try and think about our long-term fiscal problems.

His comments were reminiscent of a Bloomberg editorial he wrote last year, where he called entitlements “a massive Ponzi scheme.”

From the interview:

We’ve got 78 million baby boomers who are poised to collect, in about 15 to 20 years, about $40,000 per person. Multiply 78 million by $40,000 — you’re talking about more than $3 trillion a year just to give to a portion of the population…That’s an enormous bill that’s overhanging our heads, and Congress isn’t focused on it.