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It’s been happening since the founding of the Republic.

Around 50 years ago we were the largest creditor nation. Then we went off the gold standard and went to a completely fiat currency standard and transformed our country into the largest debtor nation. Prior to that time we were known as probably the greatest industrial nation. Then we chose to move more and more production overseas. Measured by the capital markets, we still looked great though.

I don't believe we can continue expanding our debt levels exponentially indefinitely. It's like blowing up a balloon. There are limits to how long it can be done, even if the balloon has never popped before.

If economic growth and inflation as a way of dealing with fiscal debt has stopped working, someone forgot to tell the capital markets.

People were continuing to hand money to Madoff until the day the curtain was pulled back.

What’s your forecast? Zimbabwe? Mad Max? Cannibalism? How long will this take?

I'm old enough that I'm expecting it most likely won't happen in my lifetime. Wouldn't surprise me if I'm wrong on that though. I'm very doubtful that things won't change drastically in my grandkids lifetimes.

When the situation truly changes, it will probably a Mad Max situation at best. I'd expect the globalist decision-makers to nuke the world and destroy everything possible rather that admit they were wrong.

[Around 50 years ago we were the largest creditor nation. ]

And at the founding of the Republic, it inflated the heck out of the currency in order to pay the bills. There’s an expression “not worth a Continental” that’s a relic of the period. Somehow the Republic not only survived, it grew to eclipse the metropole whence it had sprung.

[I’m old enough that I’m expecting it most likely won’t happen in my lifetime. Wouldn’t surprise me if I’m wrong on that though. I’m very doubtful that things won’t change drastically in my grandkids lifetimes.

When the situation truly changes, it will probably a Mad Max situation at best. I’d expect the globalist decision-makers to nuke the world and destroy everything possible rather that admit they were wrong.]

I think people get a ton of cues about the future from the movies because they don’t have the time or interest to look at historical or contemporary analogues. Any number of countries has gone through serious inflation* without getting into a Mad Max situation. Zimbabwe literally had hundred trillion dollar bills that were worth 40 cents.

https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/06/africa/zimbabwe-trillion-dollar-note/index.html

No Mad Max there. A number of countries have, over time, added, then taken 6 zeroes off their currencies, including Venezuela. No Mad Max there either.

The common denominator with these economies is that they continue doing what they did before, just with more zeroes on their currencies. My point is that inflation is not a good thing, but it doesn’t typically create dystopian movie scenarios.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_currency
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_peso