While the official debt is sitting at $15.66 trillion, the additional amount of unfunded liabilities owed by the United States government is a mind-numbing $115.49 trillion, bringing the total debt level to $131 trillion . Even Ben Bernanke is finally warning Congress that things aren't as rosy as the Federal Reserve boss has tried to paint them.
Bernanke's words to the Budget Committee are ominous, to say the least: "By definition, the unsustainable trajectories of deficits and debt that the CBO outlines cannot actually happen, because creditors would never be willing to lend to a government with debt, relative to national income, that is rising without limit."
Considering that it would take more than two years of the entire world's GDP to pay off all of the U.S. government's current outlays and liabilities, it's a wonder that America's debt rating has only been downgraded once. Additionally, the federal deficit for the first half of FY 2012 alone is greater than the entire GDP of Indonesia. Amazingly, politicians don't seem intent on actually doing anything about this.
Contrary to modern economic assumptions, devaluing a currency has proved through history to be the undoing of many an empire or nation. For instance, the collapse of the Roman Empire can be traced through their monetary inflation and onerous tax burdens used to sustain the "panem et circenses" (bread and circuses) public warfare/welfare programs that keeps the inhabitants of Rome content enough to not revolt.
For more: Ben Bernanke: U.S. Debt at Unsustainable Level
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