It basically says everybody needs to calm the fuck down, the US debt is not a big deal. Move along, nothing here to see.. http://www.minyanville.com/business...s-debt-gdp-news-gdp/5/12/2010/id/28244?page=1
First thing I noticed is that in his pay down the debt scenario he's only addressing the debt held by the public NOT our entire debt. Big difference. Second he's assuming a balanced budget in the foreseeable future, last I saw our budget deficit is getting larger not smaller. To make his assumption even more bogus the current congress isn't make any significant cuts. The democrats don't want to cut spending at all.
I think public debt refers to national debt, he uses a 8 trillion dollar figure and thats about right, I think its like 11 trillion currently. I'm not sure what you mean by big difference, that is our entire debt.
Our National debt is now over $14.25 Trillion and currently growing at over $1.3 trillion per year. What I meant by "big difference" is the difference between the $8 Trillion the author is using for his fairy tale scenario vs. the $14.25 Trillion + we actually owe. There may also be some confusion between terms like national debt vs public debt. In any case we owe 78% more than the author is assuming we can pay back. http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Right, the difference in whatever 3, 4, 5 trillion is really not the point anyway. The authors scenario is fantasy in that there was only a few years in the 90's where we had a budget surplus that would even allow us to pay down some principle but I think his main point is that we're never going to pay down the debt because we don't have to. Its all relative to the rest of the world and what not. As long as it doesn't get ridiculous obviously and he's saying we are nowhere near that.
Actually the difference is 6 Trillion but I'm listening. No argument here. I do agree we're probably never going to pay it back. I guess this is where I disagree with you and the article author, I think it's already ridiculous. Maybe I'm wrong.