Richard Duncan, formerly of the World Bank and chief economist at Blackhorse Asset Management, says that America's $16 trillion federal debt has escalated into a death spiral

And it could result in a depression so severe that he doesn't think our civilization could survive it. And Duncan is not alone in warning that the U.S. economy may go into a death spiral. Since the recession, noted economists including Laurence Kotlikoff, a former member of President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers, have come to similar conclusions. Kotlikoff estimates that the true fiscal gap is $211 trillion when unfunded entitlements like Social Security and Medicare are included.