US faces one of biggest budget crunches in world – IMF (100+% of GDP by 2015 thx to Zero)

Telegraph ^ | 05/14/10 | Edmund Conway

[TigerLikesRooster]

US faces one of biggest budget crunches in world – IMF

By Edmund Conway Business Last updated: May 14th, 2010

43 Comments Comment on this article

Earlier this week, the Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King, irked US authorities by pointing out that even the world’s economic superpower has a major fiscal problem -“even the United States, the world’s largest economy, has a very large fiscal deficit” were his words. They were rather vague, but by happy coincidence the International Monetary Fund has chosen to flesh out the issue today. Unfortunately this is a rather long post with a few chunky tables, but it is worth spending a bit of time with – the IMF analysis is fascinating.

Its cross-country Fiscal Monitor is not easy reading and is a VERY big pdf (17mb), so I’ve collected a few of the key points. The idea behind the document is to set out how much different countries around the world need to cut their deficits by in the next few years, and the bottom line is it’s going to be big and hard (ie 8.7pc of GDP in deficit cuts around the world, which works out at, gulp, about $4 trillion).

But the really interesting stuff is the detail, and what leaps out again and again is how much of a hill the US has to climb. Exhibit a is the fact that under the Obama administration’s current fiscal plans, the national debt in the US (on a gross basis) will climb to above 100pc of GDP by 2015 – a far steeper increase than almost any other country.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[mlocher]

Obama is toasting us. Time for the food to revolt. (At the ballot box.)

[whitedog57]

Its a “war” - the labor unions and their entitlements against the people who work hard for a living.

Obama has given the labor unions free reign. Unions and the feral legions of illegals and inner city deadbeats are his army.

[rstark56]

Gee, why don’t just spend another trillion dollars. Maybe all will be better then. Still robbing Peter to pay Paul.

[Vaduz]

Obama administration = Stupid and Dangerous

[RocketRoland]

Obama and the Democrats goal goal is to bankrupt America and install their dictatorship.

[glorgau]

One of the biggest?!?!?

Nope, the biggest by far.

[silverleaf]

obama and his cheering minions in the media show us how liberty dies. to great applause

[DuncanWaring]

Exhibit a is the fact that under the Obama administration’s current fiscal plans, the national debt in the US (on a gross basis) will climb to above 100pc of GDP by 2015 – ...

If one includes in the "National Debt" figures the "Social Security Trust Fund", the national debt is already very close to 100% of GDP and will reach 100% well before 2015.

The fact that said trust fund is called an "Intergovernmental Holding" doesn't change the fact that it's still a debt.

Borrowing money from your parents instead of a bank doesn't mean you're not in debt.

[Dogbert41]

It’s good to be NUMBER ONE again! We’re #1! We’re #1!

[blam]

"Obama has given the labor unions free reign. Unions and the feral legions of illegals and inner city deadbeats are his army."

Yup...perfect description. When the war starts, shoot UNION members first.

[john in springfield]

Totally insane.

[remember]

If one includes in the "National Debt" figures the "Social Security Trust Fund", the national debt is already very close to 100% of GDP and will reach 100% well before 2015.

You're correct. The red line in the following graph shows the projected gross federal debt through 2015 as given in the most recently released U.S. budget:

The actual numbers and sources can be found at this link. As can be seen, the gross federal debt is projected to reach 94.3% of GDP by the end of 2010, 99% of GDP by the end of 2011, and 100.8% of GDP by the end of 2012. It is projected to continue increasing after that, reaching 102.6% of GDP by the end of 2015.

The fact that said trust fund is called an "Intergovernmental Holding" doesn't change the fact that it's still a debt.

Agreed. In any event, it will all become debt held by the public soon enough as Social Security cashes in its bonds. Hence, the long-run budget projections from the 2011 Budget project that the debt held by the public will reach about 830% of GDP by 2085! That's over 7 times the prior record reached at the end of World War II. Of course, something will have to give long before we reach that level of debt.

[ASOC]

DOn’t blame O bammy alone - CONgress had to pas the budget.

THey should get at least as much (or more) of the ‘blame’

[pointsal]

For heaven's sake don't the Governor of California....

.

'Cause Arnuld is just another talking head...

[Candor7]

US faces one of biggest budget crunches in world – IMF (100+% of GDP by 2015 thx to Zero)>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>. Yes and Obama means to nationalize the economy to pay for it all.: 1) Goverment takes cash flow of Health CAre Industry ( 6 billion plus per year) 2) Government im-poses a 20% VAT ( sales tax) 3) Government takes over ( seizes) all 401k accounts under the idea that the goverment can protect citizens money against dirty rotten greedy investment companies, and will make it a Social Security II fund , and promptly will spend the money.Redistribution of wealth.

The poverty of socialism is the America in which we will live thanks to a bunch of silly , fainting voters who thought they liked black d__K? I wonder how they like getting effed right now?

We are taking our country back, one way or the other.

[GOPJ]

Thanks for t he ping