The land of the Frost Giants and a Tropical Paradise both found themselves under water recently. This catastrophe was not caused by rising sea levels, or global warming, or even the rumblings of under sea volcanoes. What sunk Iceland and the Seychelles was mark to market accounting rules, credit default swaps, and toxic assets. Both nations have gone bankrupt due to the current economic crisis.

In the case of Iceland, they built their economy on a foundation of toxic assets. Imagine complete dependence on loans that under no circumstances could ever be paid back.

The Seychelles went broke for the same reason an ordinary person might. They borrowed too much money and have no way of paying it back. It seems that there are fewer millionaires looking for $6,000 rooms this year. So the Seychelles are looking for an IMF bailout.

Bankruptcy comes in other hues as well. Whether it be Zimbabwe or the old Wiemar Republic of Germany, hyper inflation is a tried and tested way to bring a nation to it's knees. There is something about requiring a wheelbarrow full of cash to buy a loaf of bread that fails to inspire confidence in the currency. Recently, Zimbabwe decided to reawaken that confidence by creating a single bill worth 100 billion Zimbabwean dollars. Only government would simultaneously make a joke of it's economy and put a gun to your head and dare you to laugh.

But it is we who will have laugh last. The government of the United States, not to be out done by lesser nations, is prepared to out crash them all. We will undertake serious financial shenanigans that will end only after we have acquired financial obligations in excess of $100 trillion. To see this first add up all the entitlement spending from medicare to social security. Then take on the cost of universal health care and eventually add the cost of every pension in the United States. Pile on the money we have borrowed from China . Then take into account all the bailouts and the purchase of toxic assets. Finally, like a rotten cherry on top of a rancid sundae, add the fact that we are "monetizing our debt." That is to say, we are printing money and then loaning it to ourselves. What could possibly go wrong?