“First off, with US debt-to-GDP above 100%”
67% of the national debt is held by Americans. The national debt (gross federal debt) is $15.8 Trillion. $11 Trillion is public debt and $4.8 Trillion is intragovernmental (money the government owes to itself). $5.9 Trillion of the public debt is held by Americans and $5.1 Trillion is held by foreign countries. The dollar is the reserve currency of the world. We have the ability to print as many dollars as we want.
Why does that remind me of "famous last words"?
“The dollar is the reserve currency of the world. We have the ability to print as many dollars as we want.”
You’ve put your finger on one of the reasons having the reserve currency is important. At the same time, you’ve hinted at why that status might not last.
Hey moonshot925,
I’ve got this bridge for sale. Cash up front and I’ll give you 20% off asking price.
“We have the ability to print as many dollars as we want.”
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You posit that “ability” as it it is a good thing.
Wanton disregard for that capability, along with truly lunatic levels of spending, are the principal mechanisms for the historically unprecedented fiscal hole in which we find ourselves.
Of course you know that the Fed and treasury are right now plaing ponzi scheme printing games with our currency to the tune of about 60-70% of our new debt.
Of course you know that the govt gave the chicoms direct access to our treasury sales instead of going thru the regular channels, not to mention the go ahead to buy US banks. I"m not 100% sure of the ramifications of the former, but I'm sure it has Ponzi written all over it.
Of course you know that the numbers you posted are all a gross fiction and largely irrelevant (in terms of who holds the debt) in the first place. If we default, whether we are the reserve currency or Americans hold 100% of the stated debt, there will be adverse effects for us.
Of course you know our debt to GDP is well above euro failure PIIGS socialist nations. You know, the ones that are failing miserably right now
Of course you know we aren't going to be having any magical recoveries with Obama and Cass Sunstein regulating us into super business friendly Kaulifornia.
Of course you know that rejecting pipelines, making your energy bills "necessarily skyrocket", regulating the white collar jobs into outsourcing heaven, denying the existence of a border so that blue collar jobs become an insourcing heaven for illegals (not to mention the sabateurs and agents provocateur coming over) makes those projected deficits fiction as well.
So naturally, *pfffffft* of course we can just print money. And of course you're either grossly uninformed or a dirty damn stinking troll.
Weimar Germany had the ability to print as much money as they wanted too. How many countries will accept a hyperinflated dollar as the world reserve currency?