Debt Loads at Brink

How many earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes and other natural disasters can the world's financial system afford? After all, we are not creating NEW wealth when we are forced to rebuild, but merely spending our treasure to rebuild things that were already functioning.

In today's Wall Street Journal, that very question was asked. And of course the answer is less than encouraging.

The financial strains created by crises in Japan and Europe highlight a growing problem: The rich world is getting close to the point where it won't be able to bear the costs of another disaster.

"Can we afford another crisis? I think the answer is no," says Raghuram Rajan, an economist at the University of Chicago who served as chief economist at the International Monetary Fund from 2003 to 2007. "We simply don't have the government capacity in many countries to bail out the system again."

Meanwhile, rich nations' ability to pay is waning. Their mature economies are growing at slower rates than the emerging world, aging populations are leaving them with less potential to earn the money needed to pay rising medical and pension bills, and the kind of taxes that would fund their ambitions face stiff political opposition.

"There's an expectation that government will always be there to bail you out and there's an expectation that tax rates will always be kept low," says Mr. Rogoff. "Those are inconsistent."

See it here; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704474804576223154130238950.html

Is this more evidence that the world is near a tipping point? Are we standing at the edge of the abyss....or have we already fallen into yet and we just haven't realized it quite yet?

Europe is already reeling with the possibility that Portugal will need a bailout. What will happen if Japan cashes in it's U.S. treasuries and America has to find someone else to loan us the money to pay them back? Do we have another $trillion sitting around to write them a check?

Can you at least now see how the world's financial system could implode? Can you see how the world may soon need a charismatic leader who could offer us the "solution" of a one-world currency?