At the end of 2006, with U.S. equity markets and the U.S. economy both bloated to artificial highs – thanks to the Wall Street Ponzi-scheme, built atop the U.S. housing “bubble” - the United States already had a “pension crisis”.State and local governments had unfunded liabilities for retiree health-care of close to or above, $1 trillion, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. The actual range of estimates was $600 billion to $1.6 trillion, with a median value being well over $1 trillion.