There are solutions to the current debt crisis that are unthinkable given the present "regime" -- the current composition of the U.S. congressional, executive and judicial branches of government. We can classify those changes into two broad categories: those that conceivably could be initiated after only one more electoral cycle by extending recent political trends, and those that would require a more radical political upheaval on the scale of Andrew Jackson's or Franklin Roosevelt's election. more »

For at least a couple of decades the U.S. government and central bank have pursued policies that minimize pain over the short term while deferring the fiscal consequences to some unspecified later date. more »