| Natsu wrote: |
I think we could do that... we owe a fixed amount of money that is acquiring interest. We don't owe a certain value in gold we owe a certain number of dollars. So we could in theory print off a shit-ton and pay off our debts. That's what Germany did, or was forced to do after WWI and essentially their currency was worthless, there was so much of it everywhere that the material itself became worth more than the actual note.
It would hurt us a lot in the sheer internal functioning of our economy. I'm not sure all the ramifications aside from horrendous inflation making us need a suit case full of money to buy some bread that. |
Yes, hyper-inflation would be the result. You can find pictures of Germans wallpapering their house with worthless paper marks. Zimbabwe is going through a similar crisis, to the point where other countries just stopped selling them the paper they print their money on, and they've completely abandoned their own currency.
A dollar bill is just like anything else out there, it's value is based upon how much there is and how badly people want it. If you print more, the supply goes up, it's worth less. Since it's worth less, people want it less, the demand goes down, it's worth less. Since it's worth less, you need more to cover your debts, so the government prints more, the value goes down again...it's not pretty.
