U.S. is different from Japan. But that difference is not wide enough to ensure that America escapes with minor damage to its economy and Japan goes down big time. The difference is in my view that America decided to pump in money(credits) before bubble pops like Japan did. So America is forestalling the popping for now. And America may monetize debts rather than going under like Japan. As a percentage of GDP, Japan has five times the public debt of the United States and their GDP is shrinking while the debt continues to grow. That's a big difference, not a little one.