Art Cashin Previews Our $202 Trillion Destiny!
- Art Cashin Previews Our $202 Trillion Destiny!
by Tyler Durden, www.zerohedge.com
Yesterday’s trading was a balance between Italy fears and fiscal cliff hopes-fears-and-hopes-again. While UBS’ Art Cashin notes that on the bright side, this will all be over on December 21st when the Mayans predicted the end of the world, he also details what is perhaps even more fearsome – not-the-end-of-the-world as, in his words, demographics, destiny, and the fiscal cliff loom very large not just for the next few weeks but heading out over the next decade as baby boomers retire.
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As Cashin so wisely points out: “Somewhat lost in the posturing is the fact that the Fiscal Cliff was put in place to force Washington to address the exploding government debt problem. That problem is greatly exacerbated by the rapidly changing demographics in this country. If you fast forward 20 years until all the boomers are retired government debt (taking into account unfunded liabilities) soars to $202 trillion. Perhaps worth remembering that “The real problem is that regardless of the resolution it will not solve anything. We have passed the point of no return. We cannot mathematically solve this debt problem. We can only slow its progression.”
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Via Art Cashin of UBS:
Demographics, Destiny And The Fiscal Cliff – Somewhat lost in the posturing is the fact that the Fiscal Cliff was put in place to force Washington to address the exploding government debt problem. That problem is greatly exacerbated by the rapidly changing demographics in this country. Bill Gross, Bill Frezza and others have recently explored this connection and complication. Here’s a bit from a tenured veteran of Wall Street, Jim Brown of the Option Investor:
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