A pensions time bomb spells disaster for the US economy

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"The average state pension in the last fiscal year returned something south of 1%. You cannot fill that gap with a bulldozer, impossible," DiMartino Booth said. "Anyone who knows their compounding tables knows you don't make that up. You don't get that back unless you get some miracle."

The last time we saw significant market weakness, the baby boomers pretty much accepted that they would be retiring at 70 instead of 65, she added. "Well, guess what? They're turning 71. And the physiological decision to stay in the workforce won't work for much longer. And that means that these pensions are going to come under tremendous amounts of pressure.

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Huge withdrawals are now taking place, amid concerns over the future viability of the pension scheme, which commentators say could be flat broke in a little over ten years. "We're seeing this surge of people trying to retire early and take the money. Because they see it's not going to be there. And if that dynamic and that belief spreads-- forget all the other problems," DiMartino Booth said. "The pension fund -- underfunding is Ground Zero."

The gravity of the situation with the lack of returns is magnified by the fact that the underperformance has been going on for between ten and 15 years. Calpers, the California Public Employees' Retirement System is a case in point, amid reports that it returned just 0.6% last year compared with its long term target of 7.5%.

With the legal language tightly written on pensions like this across the country, such that states and municipalities won't be able to break free of their obligations, DiMartino Booth thinks the endgame will evoke memories of the Winter of Discontent in London in 1979 and more recently the riots in Athens as key public services are cut.