"The first study, published on March 18th by Standard & Poor's, a credit-rating agency, estimates the damage that increases in age-related spending will wreak on government budgets if policies remain the same. In America, Germany and France, public debt will balloon from about 65% of GDP now to over 200% by 2050; in Britain it will rise from about 40% to over 150%. This would cause credit ratings to tumble in the 2020s: solid sovereign debt would turn to junk by 2035." (Quoted from article)