We’ll we are actually ahead of schedule in reaching the financial meltdown. Five years is optimistic. Two years maybe optimistic.
We are at a Debt to GDP level of 73.7%. At 90% (less that two years at current deficit levels) some few people will stop buying US bonds and it will become very difficult for US businesses to compete with the government for capital. At 120% countries typically default. The obvious exception of course is Greece (150%) but they had the backing of Germany. We have no backing. No one will bail us out.
Obama can only hope of course that this happens before the inauguration and he can declare an emergency. It probably won’t but he can hope.
I heard a statistic that our debt obligation, that is debt that is owed in pensions, etc, and NOT currently on the books,
exceeds 20 times the total amount of currency.