The U.S. Ponzi Scheme

It is quickly becoming conventional wisdom that, despite assurances by Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke last year that the central bank would not monetize the debt, that is exactly what is being done. Spotted over at the Daily Bail (good to have you back from vacation, by the way) comes this clip of CNBC's Erin Burnett calling the system of financing the operations of the U.S. government a Ponzi Scheme.

Sayeth Erin: "We had to issue one-and-a-half trillion dollars of new debt last year, in 2009, in this country, just to finance the deficit. Eighty percent of that debt was bought by the U.S. Federal Reserved which means ... I guess you could use the term Ponzi Scheme. How long can we continue doing that?"