Originally Posted by Mutt

This is always what economists say about printing money, that it will devalue the dollar, hence inflation. BUT why would that have to be if the US printed 500 billion dollars to pay off China and China took the 500 billion and went on a worldwide shopping spree buying up resources, as they already do? What if for example China took that money and in just one transaction paid Canada for the rights to the Arctic?

Originally Posted by sperbonzo

Bingo!


You can use all of the tricks of fiat currency.... e.g. Borrowing from others in the form of bonds, Centralized banking that buys back their own government bonds, (i.e. loaning itself the money), increasing taxes, (including those designed as regulatory fees which are actually taxes), printing more money, (i.e. artificial inflation, which is, in the end, just another form of taxation), confiscation of retirement funds and savings, currency controls to keep revenues from leaving the country, price and wage controls, etc, etc, etc.... But history shows us that, in the end, default and reset will eventually be reached.

Typically in those situations, the vast majority of all of the pundits, officials, experts and spokespeople of their day refuse to believe that this will happen until it does.