Is american Debt Sustainable?

The WSJ showed IMF estimates of the national borrowing needs for 2011 and surprisingly the US was #2 behind FUBAR Japan. Altogether Western economies need to borrow $10.2T to carry on lifestyles that should have ended three decades ago.

Americans will need to borrow $4.2T (26% of GDP) in 2011 to keep the can rolling down the road for another year. That's 7% of 2008 global GDP. Since the US generates 25% of global GDP you'd think we wouldn't have to borrow from the rest of the world. But, hey, american exceptionalism and all that stuff. Needless to say, this is unprecedented in peacetime and utterly unsustainable.

Sarah Palin has a few things to say about Bernanke's plan to print and pump. Read her comments here.

Unless americans dig up a 195 thousand pound gold ball every year, we're going to have to borrow or cut back. It's a trick question, but what do you think is going to happen?