You've heard that the US has about $14.5 trillion in national debt, but this week Laurence Kotlikof, an economist and former Reagan advisor, said the US is really $211 TRILLION in debt. His reasoning: Through entitlements that's how much we've promised to pay out, and therefore that's the real fiscal problem that needs fixing. Sorry, this idea is just pure nonsense. The future cost of entitlement programs isn't the same as debt. Just think about this from your perspective. Say your 30 years old, make $100,000 per year and spend $36K per year on rent and $10K per year on food. So you spend 46K on the basics (just to ... (full story)