By modestly assuming that national income tracks with household income, that household savings rates revert to their historical mean (i.e., greater than 5% of household income, c.f. http://seekingalpha.com/article/112604-what-will-happen-if-america-returns-to-an-historical-savings-rate), and finally that nominal GDP grows by only 2% during the amortisation period, more than $17 trillion of that debt could be retired by the end of the 20th year.

Of course, the beneficial effects of that debt retirement would be felt long before then…that is those good effects would have been felt had governments everywhere not already volunteered to fill in the void of new debt…

Bottom line…subtle changes here…can have massive consequences there…once again, get beyond all the distortion and things are really not as bleak as they SEEM…

Another topic. Mr. Obama should know that making over $250K a year does not make you a part of the rich in many areas of the world. What really makes you rich is your asset, from say, stock options, inheritance or winning the lottery. We are talking about at least $10 million if not $25 million, all the way up to billions of dollars, perhaps trillions. Now, how long will that take a guy or a gal making $250K a year to have that much asset?

Going forward, to restart the economy, Mr. Obama would need people to contribute to the economy and that will mean earning a salary and if you’re competent, you might make over $250K a year. On the other hand, you might have $1 billion worth of asset and if you have a billion, it was made in the past, versus $250K per year in future earnings that Mr. Obama wants to tax, and who knows, that one billion you have in the bank might have been ill-gotten gains, given that fact that we have just gone the most roaring, or is it roaring-est, twenty years in centuries.

So, taxing income over $250K/year is burdening the future and in truth, middle and upper middle class, while taxing asset over $20, $50 or $100 milllion is a way of correcting the wrongs of the past and really getting at the rich, you know, people like Bill and Hilary Cliton, etc.

And in fact, if you have to raise a certain additional amount of tax revenue, by including the middle and upper middle class, it means you don’t have to tax the truly rich as much. You spread the pain to people who are not really rich. It’s a case of the rich hiding behind the middle class.

If you are reading this and making $250K a year and if you don’t agree with me and are mad, I apologize for insulting your sense of self-worth, but you’re really not rich.