Economist Calls Entitlements A Massive Ponzi Scheme And Says US Is Actually $211 Trillion In Debt -

Economist Calls Entitlements A Massive Ponzi Scheme And Says US Is Actually $211 Trillion In Debt - 

In an interview with NPR, former Reagan economic adviser Laurence Kotlikoff said the U.S.'s "true indebtedness" amounts to $211 trillion.

That's more than 15 times the $14 trillion official figure.

"We're focused just on the official debt, so we're trying to balance the wrong books," Kotlikoff said, naming Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for the skyrocketing unofficial figure.

If you add up all the promises that have been made for spending obligations, including defense expenditures, and you subtract all the taxes that we expect to collect, the difference is $211 trillion. That's the fiscal gap...

Why are these guys thinking about balancing the budget?...They should try and think about our long-term fiscal problems.

His comments were reminiscent of a Bloomberg editorial he wrote last year, where he called entitlements "a massive Ponzi scheme."

Read more -

http://www.businessinsider.com/economist-says-us-is-actually-211-million-in-debt-2011-8