Visit to the Dark Side: What if the Fed is right

(Note this has not had its final edit. It is meant to make a point about how robust the system is even when it takes a large hit)
Some people are predicting that the next four quarters are going to be totally flat. What happens to our model if we assume a sequence of 2007. 2.6%; 2008 1% then sustained growth at 2.6% while maintaining a pretty pessimistic view of growth in the outyears. Note that 2008 was projected as being the only year at 3.0% in the whole projection, replacing that with a zero is going to hurt. But how much? As it turns out surprising little.

The vertical axis has the Intermediate Cost alternative projections given in the 2007 Report for the years from 2007 to 2024. The horizontal axis represents the numbers as they would have to be adjusted for posited GDP over that same period.
------2008--09--10--11--12--13--14--15--16--17--2024

2007 2.6
2008 3.0--3.0
2009 2.8--2.8--2.9
2010 2.6--2.6--2.8--2.8
2011 2.6--2.5--2.8--2.8--2.7
2012 2.4--2.4--2.7--2.7--2.7--2.7
2013 2.2--2.2--2.7--2.7--2.7--2.7--2.7
2014 2.1--2.1--2.6--2.6--2.6--2.7--2.7--2.6
2015 2.2--2.2--2.5--2.6--2.7--2.6--2.6--2.6--2.5
2016 2.2--2.2--2.5--2.5--2.5--2.5--2.5--2.5--2.5--2.5
2017 2.2--2.2--2.4--2.4--2.4--2.5--2.5--2.5--2.5--2.5--2.5
2018 2.2--2.2--2.3--2.3--2.4--2.4--2.4--2.5--2.4--2.4--2.4--2.5
2019 2.1--2.2--2.2--2.3--2.3--2.3--2.4--2.4--2.4--2.4--2.4--2.4--2.4
2020 2.1--2.1--2.2--2.2--2.3--2.3--2.3--2.3--2.4--2.4--2.3--2.3--2.3--2.3
2021 2.1--2.1--2.2--2.2--2.2--2.2--2.3--2.3--2.3--2.3--2.3--2.3--2.3--2.2-2.2
2022 2.1--2.1--2.1--2.2--2.2--2.2--2.2--2.3--2.3--2.3--2.3--2.3--2.2--2.2-2.1-2.0
2023 2.1--2.1--2.1--2.1--2.2--2.2--2.2--2.2--2.3--2.3--2.3--2.2--2.2--2.2-2.1-2.0-1.9
2024 2.1--2.1--2.1--2.1--2.1--2.2--2.2--2.2--2.2--2.2--2.2--2.2--2.2--2.1-2.0-1.9-1.9

2.6% is a pretty pessimistic number but even in the face of a terrible 0% hit in 2008 would put the system on track to solvency by 2014. It just takes some minor adjustments to growth numbers in the outyears.