"In the past several decades, the country paid for increases in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid spending through cuts in defense spending relative to the size of the economy.  That approach is not feasible in the future."  CBO, March 8, 2010."If you really want to see when an empire is getting vulnerable, the big giveaway is when the costs of serving the debt exceed the cost of the defense budget."  Niall Ferguson.(Read Full Post)