{"id":14321,"date":"2015-11-12T07:21:48","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T12:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=14321"},"modified":"2015-11-12T07:21:48","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T12:21:48","slug":"shocking-little-known-facts-about-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=14321","title":{"rendered":"Shocking, Little-Known Facts About Debt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shocking, Little-Known Facts About Debt<\/a><\/h3>\n
Both liberals and conservatives assume they have a rough idea of how much \u201cthe debt\u201d is.\u00a0 But the real numbers are shocking \u2026<\/div>\n
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Public Debt Is Soaring<\/h3>\n

Global debt has soared to\u00a0$199 trillion dollars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The debt to GDP ratio for the entire world is\u00a0286%<\/a>.\u00a0 In other words, global debt is almost\u00a03 times<\/em>\u00a0the size of the world economy. (William Banzai sarcastically suggests we send out a\u00a0space beacon<\/a>\u00a0asking aliens to\u00a0bail us out<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

The Hill\u00a0reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The former U.S. comptroller general says the real\u00a0U.S. debt<\/strong>\u00a0is closer to about\u00a0$65 trillion<\/strong>\u00a0than the oft-cited figure of $18 trillion.<\/p>\n

Dave Walker, who headed the Government Accountability Office (GAO) under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, said when you add up all of the nation\u2019s unfunded liabilities, the national debt is more than three times the number generally advertised.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you end up adding to that $18.5 trillion the unfunded civilian and military pensions and retiree healthcare, the additional underfunding for Social Security, the additional underfunding for Medicare, various commitments and contingencies that the federal government has, the real number is about $65 trillion rather than $18 trillion, and it\u2019s growing automatically absent reforms \u2026.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But former Senior Economist for the President\u2019s Council of Economic Advisers and current Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff says that \u2013 when unfunded liabilities are taken into account \u2013 the fiscal gap for the U.S. is actually 3 times higher \u2026\u00a0$205<\/strong>\u00a0trillion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many states are also deeply in the red \u2026 For example:<\/p>\n