It wasn't that long ago that I was getting lots of calls from bond traders on Wall Street who needed career counseling. This was 1998-2001 when, for the first time in 70 years, the federal government had run 4 consecutive budget surpluses and there was talk about paying off the national debt by the end of the decade.

It now seems almost inevitable that, regardless of who is elected president and which politicla party controls Congress, federal spending and borrowing will have to increase substantially in the coming years. My guess is that a 25 percent real increase over current levels -- about $125 billion -- is coming.