Painful Crisis on the Horizon

Blackstone's Byron Wien has some sobering thoughts from a discussion with someone he calls "the smartest man in the world".  Frankly, I don't think it takes a whole lot of brilliance to see what he sees ahead.  Debt is out of control and pain is coming.  But this line gets attention:

Human beings and governments have an unlimited imagination and they will use it to delay the day of reckoning.  In the longer term the crisis may turn out to be a good thing because the pain of what we are about to go through will prevent it from ever happening again.

I'm not sure there is ever enough pain to keep future generations from having to learn the lessons again, but his point is made.  It's gonna get ugly.

Read it all.