By Lee Barney Newsmax.com
New York real estate magnate Seymour Durst installed the National Debt Clock in the city in 1989 when the U.S. national debt was approaching a then-unfathomable $3 trillion.
With the U.S. debt burden today 11 times larger, $32.6 trillion, Leslie “Les” Rubin, CEO and founder of Main Street Economics, is taking the shock value of a national debt clock showing the U.S. debt compounding at the rate of $163,750 an hour, a step further.
Rubin’s aim is to educate the public about the impending economic disaster of the U.S. national debt being 129% the size of its national gross domestic product (GDP). Next year alone, the U.S. will pay $1 trillion in interest on the debt.
Read Newsmax: US $33T Debt, ‘The Greatest Ponzi Scheme of All Time’ | Newsmax.com
At this rate, Rubin estimates that the U.S. national debt will top $50 trillion in 10 years and $150 trillion in 30 years—if it reaches these levels and does not implode first.
Newsmax Finance recently spoke with Rubin to ask him about the implications of the U.S. national debt, how it could be reined in—and how he is hoping to galvanize the American public to prod their elected leaders into action.
Newsmax Finance: Washington has successfully managed to kick the national debt can down the road for decades. What would need to happen to make the national debt an imminent crisis?
Les Rubin: The problem will occur when investors finally realize the debt is so large, and we have no means to repay it other than borrowing more. When they stop buying our debt, it will be curtains for the U.S. as we know it.
Newsmax: You just said “it will be curtains for the U.S. as we know it.” That’s a pretty dire prediction.
Rubin: The U.S. national debt is a bomb that is ready to explode. We have no source to repay or service the debt. That is a Ponzi scheme.
If we were to ever default on the debt, it would be a worldwide financial disaster. We are the world’s big kahuna. Unlike Greece that was bailed out by the EU with 86 billion Euros, there’s no one in the world to bail out the United States of America. If the Fed were to start printing money, it would lead to higher interest rates and create a “doom loop” cycle from which there is no exit.