Is the West going broke? It would seem to be a legitimate question in this era of sovereign debt panic. Not only is the euro zone struggling to prop up the European common currency with enormous bailout packages for its most indebted members, but concerns that Greece may ultimately go bust anyway have many afraid that the worst is yet to come.
And then there is the United States. A report released by the International Monetary Fund last week suggests that US national debt could reach 100 percent of gross domestic product by 2015 -- and despite efforts to slim down the budget pushed through Congress by the administration of President Barack Obama last week, there is little indication that the upward trend will be reversed any time soon. This year's budget deficit will add a cool $1.5 trillion to the US debt load.
