Unemployment drops .....

[Texashiker]

Or rendered less valuable through inflation. I guaruntee 17Trillion will be worth order of magnitudes less in 40 years. The debt is a tool to achieve boosted output. It takes some balance, but where balance fails, inflation can be utilized to varying degrees to pay off debt burden. If we can sell debt to foreigners all the better, we can off shore some inflation.

Isn't that like what Germany did to pay off its debt from the first war? Just print massive amounts of money out of thin air to pay the war debt.

And we all know how that worked out.

 

[fskimospy]

Isn't that like what Germany did to pay off its debt from the first war? Just print massive amounts of money out of thin air to pay the war debt.

And we all know how that worked out.

No on several levels. The reason why Germany had such problems with its debt is that it was owed in foreign currency. It is not very possible to inflate your way out of foreign debt, as your currency just depreciates.

Secondly, German hyperinflation took place almost ten years before Hitler came to power. The real economic issue that brought in Hitler was the great depression, and if anything the great depression was marked by deflation.