"These are mind boggling numbers, " said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at the Smith School of Business at California State University.

BBC: US budget deficit at $1 trillion

"The fear in the markets is that the problem will spread to bigger economies such as Spain and Italy, Europe would not have the resources to handle a crisis of that magnitude, " said Sung Won Sohn, economics professor at California State University.

BBC: Global leaders call for euro debt action

That, at least, is the conclusion of MIT grad student Sung Wook Paek, who won the 2012 Move an Asteroid Technical Paper Competition with his proposal.

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