Cascading sovereign debt defaults is probably the most grounded catastrophic prediction in the next while. With that said I don't think that's likely. Governments are going to start (and already have) cutting entitlements and raising taxes. In my mind the more likely scenario is one of low growth or deflation exemplified by Japan which is looking more and more like the canary in the coal mine having gone through a debt crisis about 10 years before we did.
Of course, the other elephant in the room is Sino-American relations fraying over financial and colonial issues as China's sphere rapidly expands.
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