Perhaps most sobering for U.S. taxpayers and creditors are some robust assumptions made in the report.

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And, if this set-up works, it will send sobering messages about U.S. influence in New Delhi.

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As sobering as the U.S. debt estimates are, they are incomplete and optimistic.

WSJ: David Ranson: The Revenue Limits of Tax and Spend

Even more sobering is the estimation that 280, 000 U.S. citizens die each year from complications of obesity.

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Stack's sobering perspectives force investors to consider the unpleasant possibility that U.S. equity markets are doomed to follow the lead of Japanese stocks caught in the funk of a 13-year bear market.

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Here's a sobering fact: South Korea, a country whose population is just one-sixth that of the U.S., graduates as many engineers as we do.

FORBES: Magazine Article