U.S. Debt Crisis May Cause "Fall of Rome" Scenario

I am far from an economist, but this has made sense to me for awhile. Now, a leading expert says that our budget deficits will continue to increase, until they reach a level that will result in an economic collapse. It's like there's a race going on between our drunken sailor level of spending, and our equally foolish misallocation of natural resources that will soon reach a reckoning (otherwise known as peak oil). No matter which one comes first, we are apparently screwed.