Economic Question of a Generation

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending an investor conference in San Diego hosted by John Mauldin and Altegris Investments.  The line up of speakers was exceptional — in addition to John, whom I consider one of the best minds in the country in understanding the economic events of the day, the speakers included John Paulson, Marc Faber, David Harding of Winton Capital, the editor of the Bank Credit Analyst and others. The room was filled with nearly 500 investors all asking essentially the same question.  What is the implication of a Federal Reserve balance sheet that looks like an Apollo moonshot … a federal fiscal deficit that has doubled the debt of the United States in a very short period of time, and if not abated,will easily have the United State’s debt in excess of 150% of GDP — only once in world history has a country survived with a debt restructuring over this level … having a country like Japan already with debt at 200% of GDP with a declining population and declining working population coupled with a savings rate that in a few short years will be negative as the Japanese start being a net …