No.
Because the fact is for 40 years we’ve heard scare stories of the “National Debt” and “Deficits” and the ONLY hyperinflation we’ve had was from energy lockdowns in the 1970s.
In the 1990s, a MASSIVE, as-yet un-accounted-for DEFLATION hit the world, and most still haven’t recognized it. It’s called the computer. Suddenly, numerous sources are starting to realize that the productive value of the computer skyrocketed past valuations and the ability to “cost” its functions. (See the recent article on entropyeconomics about the $51 million smartphone). Even some of the “traditional” economists are starting to note that their CPI/GDP numbers were horrendously off in the late 1800s, meaning they are nowhere close to appropriately valuing things today.
Add in Chinese/Asian/Latin American deflationary slave labor. We likely climbed into a gigantic deflationary hole in the early 1990s that all the QE1, 2, 20 won’t affect in the least.
Then there is the legal issue of the U.S. Treasury not being allowed to value American assets at MARKET prices, but must value them (think things like gold and land) at PURCHASED price-—which means at the very least our “national debt” has not taken into account TRILLIONS of dollars of real valuation that the US government owns.
So until you start seeing wages going up fivefold at least, you won’t be seeing a lot of inflation. Which means no one will care about the debt.
I was a programmer in the '60s and can remember when, of a sudden, the computer became cheaper than the people who coded for it. In the beginning, using COBOL, we had to desk-check every line of code before sending it in because the computer was so expensive. When we went from the IBM 360 to the 370, everything changed.
One day I got jumped for "using the computer too much" when I made my third trip to the computer room for a recompile (punch cards). I told the manager that the computer could find the error in seconds where it took me a half hours worth of desk checking and STILL missed the error (damned missing period). Deer in headlights.
[Sidebar] When we computerized our inventory (K-Mart type of operation) the bean counters said we saved the company the equivalent of all the programmers yearly wages.
You can’t eat an iphone. Food prices have not seen deflation but rather rapid inflation.
Just for one example, we had an entire department at corporate HQ dedicated just to expense reimbursement. Expense reports would be submitted to them through interoffice mail or by fax machine. 2-3 weeks later, you would get your reimbursement check.
Now when I travel, I take pictures of my receipts with my cellphone and they automatically upload to my current expense report. Each month, I hit "submit" and within 24 hours, my corporate card is paid or if out of pocket, I get that amount direct deposited to my bank account. No human intervention at all except those in the approval process. Once in a while, your expense report might get the "random audit" by a third party.
But an entire department of 20 people no longer exists.
Of course, I'm just scratching the surface of the efficiencies that computer technology has brought to the corporate world. The job I do today would have taken several people just 20 years ago and I would have had a "secretary" as well.
I do miss having a secretary sometimes.