"The pair said that if they did not get it immediately, the U.S. financial system would implode within 72 hours; the world's financial system, within three weeks; and that social unrest and political chaos could ensue within the month." (In the end, Bannon notes, it was more like $5 trillion that was required, though no one really knows how much, as there has been no accounting for all these trillions).
"We (the U.S.) have", he continues, "in the wake of the bailouts that ensued, liabilities of $200 trillions, but net assets - including everything - of some $50-60 trillion." (Recall that Bannon is himself a former Goldman Sachs banker).
"We are upside down; the industrial democracies today have a problem we have never had before; we are over-leveraged (we have to go through a massive de-leveraging); and we have built a welfare state which is completely and totally unsupportable.
"And why this is a crisis ... the problem ... is that the numbers have become so esoteric that even the guys on Wall Street, at Goldman Sachs, the guys I work with, and the Treasury guys ... It's so tough to get this together ... Trillion dollar deficits ... etcetera."
Comment: For more on Steve Bannon and the Fourth Turning see: