by John Mauldin
Gold Seek
[…] For the past three weeks I’ve been discussing the economic realities the new president will face when he or she takes office next January, using the device of an “open letter to the next president.” Mostly, we’ve been dealing with the economic realities that other countries face and with how difficult the global economic climate is going to be during the next president’s first four years. I briefly outlined last week the stark reality of what will happen to the deficit and national debt in the next four years, and I offered a chart of what would happen if (as I think likely) we have a recession within four years. The deficit would immediately blow out to $1 trillion. That figure is before any stimulus and in all likelihood does not include the significant amounts that will have to be spent on unemployment reserves, etc.