News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Washington Is Quietly Repudiating Its Debts. Parent comment

Re:Washington Is Quietly Repudiating Its Debts by sgrove on Sunday October 05, 2008 @04:43AM (#323996)
Not to be argumentative, but I would be curious about the the $25 trillion figure - where does it come from? It seems very big, and very round for me.

I'm far from an economic expert, so I'm interested in hearing about how you calculated the figure.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Washington Is Quietly Repudiating Its Debts by felipe on Sunday October 05, 2008 @05:15AM (#324011)
I don't know about the $25t figure, but the unfunded obligations (i. e.: debt + Social Security + Medicare + etc...) amount to $59t

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Washington Is Quietly Repudiating Its Debts by quasimojo on Sunday October 05, 2008 @11:41AM (#324129)
the $25 trillion point is pure speculation. i merely suggest this as a tipping point
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Washington Is Quietly Repudiating Its Debts by helveticaman on Sunday October 05, 2008 @04:40PM (#324319)
This is not unreasonable. Adam Smith said that no country had ever paid its debt after it had exceeded a certain threshold.
[ Parent | on HN ]