[Jack Black]

Excellent point, great post. So, lets think this trough. If the Fed doesn't print enough money to buy $600 billion in Treasury notes then who is going to buy those T-bills to keep the government afloat? If we have to go to market we're not going to get away with the very low interest rates we're paying today, to make that much debt attractive the rates will have to go way up, which means we'll need even more borrowing in the future.

We can have austerity, or inflation via monetization (what Bernanke is doing) or outright debt repudiation (ala Argentina), or some combination of all three. But we can't have "nothing". Austerity is being tried with a vengence in Ireland, and not working so well. The problem with austerity is that it shrinks the economy and lowers tax revenue, so it's a vicoius cycle too. I say we get right to the main act and start repudiating this debt.

[agere_contra]

Nobodys buying the T-Bills now. America is already running on air.

Repudiate US debts? As well as adding a zero to future credit charges repudiation would also create the most monstrous moral hazards. Hundreds of them! The US isn't Argentina or Mexico: repudiation of US sovereign debt would color every Anglophone transaction on earth and alienate every creditor country.

And you'd still end up with crushing inflation - a Government that repudiates its debts isn't going to stop spending its way to oblivion.

I'd also expect possessions and citizens overseas to be distrained upon.

Example: China could promptly repossess all US-owned and US-citizen-owned assets on Chinese soil. When you complain, the Chinese would simply say "you owe us twillion dollar, round-eyed dogs: pay up or put up!".