USA: Success or Secession?

It's pretty hard to imagine why anyone would be willing to pay a 90% income tax rate without any improvement in public services. Especially if it's to repay debt incurred by somebody else. Anyone that has the means would simply pick up and move somewhere else. Investor Jim Rogers already relocated to Singapore for this very reason; many others will follow. Naturally, it will be impossible for 300 million people to do the same. The alternative therefore, will be secession. Canada had it's own debates about secession with Quebec trying to withdraw from the country. Americans will have similar heated discussions about the legal right of American States to secede from the Union. Nonetheless it is the most probable and perhaps even inevitable outcome, particularly if economic recovery does not happen sooner rather than later. As I've said before, I think crude oil prices of no more than $20 a barrel will be necessary for sustained economic growth to occur in the United States.

The bad news is that when a country splits up, the breakup is nearly always preceded and/or succeeded by some form of civil war. Debt holders could be wiped out or suffer significant losses. The good news is that the Soviet Union, the only nuclear power to secede, was able to keep it's inventory of nuclear weapons secure and unused during the process.