One thing I’ve wondered about for a long time, is if the US printed $19 trillion to cover the national debt, what would be the rate of inflation, compared to now?
You could kiss our banking system good bye 5 minutes after that happens. With that much liquidity sitting on their books, no US Dollar as the world’s currency and our banks rapidly drowning in the liquidity.
“One thing I’ve wondered about for a long time, is if the US printed $19 trillion to cover the national debt, what would be the rate of inflation, compared to now?”
Common misunderstanding.
Inflation does not arise from money printing, but from a lack of confidence in government (which grows daily). The historical massive printing occurred after confidence disappeared and inflation began.
I don’t know the answer to your question...but I do believe $19 trillion won’t pay off all our debt.
There are federal pension obligations, and for as far as forecasters can see, SS is in the red every year.
Add in the gubmint’s insuring shaky pension plans, student loans backed by the gubmint that will never get paid back, and a possible repeat of the real estate bubble, and the total unfunded obligation probably rivals that of the official debt.
Then there are state and local government obligations...
We’d run out of green ink.
That dollar bill in your wallet would probably be worth about 5 cents — if you’re lucky.
They don't make trucks big enough for you to haul your worthless dollars to the store.
The same we fudge the figure so it will be whatever we want it to be.
That depends upon the velocity of money, the willingness of people to hold cash instead of spend it.
A very large amount of government debt is held by insurance companies and retirement funds as a reliable source of revenue. They would be in a mad grab for other debt instruments.