What else should we be worried about in 2008?
Else? Haven't the headlines already been filled with enough fearful forecasts from financial experts apparently keen to outdo each other in their expectations of Armageddon?
Correct, but unfortunately it never rains, but it pours...
...and Yes, there's another nasty out there, a time bomb waiting to nuke the dollar and shake the
UK.
The US national debt.
At a towering $9.13 trillion, up from $2.7 trillion in 1989 and $5.7 trillion when President Bush arrived in the oval office in January 2001, the sum that America owes has grown from about 35% of national output in 1975 to almost 68% today. Now equivalent to over $30,000 for each man, woman and child in the States, it's ticking up at some $1.4bn a day, nearly $1m a minute.
Scary numbers. And getting scarier all the time.
Firstly because demands on the government purse are escalating...with the number of ‘65+' Americans expected to double within the next 25 years, and the working population growing less quickly, what is already the biggest bit of state spending will need more and more funding.
Secondly, without getting too political, the cost of ongoing conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan is more than the States can really afford, with a potential cost of some $2.4 trillion over the next ten years.
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