Washington DC cannot be next...we would print at any cost before we defaulted. High inflation is less deadly than TOTAL loss of global confidence in the monetary system.
I hear your point Invanry, and others say this, but here is another argument.
She notes the US needing an austerity plan. If we look at the number, it does. Yes, DC can print, but there is a limit to that (I don't know what that limit is).
The GDP debt ratio and projections.
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Next Debt Crisis May Start in Washington: Bair
Published: Friday, 26 Nov 2010
The US needs to take urgent action to cut its debt in order to prevent the next financial crisis, which may start in Washington, Sheila Bair, chair of the Federal Deposits Insurance Corp. (FDIC) wrote in an editorial in the Washington Post.
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair says the US needs austerity plan.
The federal debt has doubled over the past seven years, to almost $14 trillion, and the growth is a result of both the financial crisis and the government's "unwillingness over many years to make the hard choices necessary to rein in our long-term structural deficit," Bair wrote.
Retiring baby boomers will impact government spending heavily and this year, combined spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are expected to make up 45 percent of primary federal spending, compared with 27 percent in 1975, she explained.
"Defense spending is similarly unsustainable, and our tax code is riddled with special-interest provisions that have little to do with our broader economic prosperity," Bair wrote. "Overly generous tax subsidies for housing and health care have contributed to rising costs and misallocation of resources."
If no action is taken, US federal debt held by the public could rise from 62 percent of gross domestic product this year to 185 percent in 2035, she warned.
Link:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/40378597