Forbes: No, The United States Will Not Go Into A Debt Crisis, Not Now, Not Ever

[eridani]

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/forbes-explains-why-there-no-debt-crisi?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

If there’s one article of faith in Washington (and elsewhere), it’s the idea that the United States might get into a debt crisis if it doesn’t get its fiscal house in order. This is not true. The reason why it’s not true is because we live in a fiat currency system, where the United States government can create an infinite number of dollars at no cost to meet its obligations. A Treasury bill is a promise that the government will give you US dollars–something that the United States government can produce infinitely and at no cost. That’s the reason why interest rates on United States debt have only gone down even as the debt has ballooned.

That’s the reason why Great Britain has very low rates on its debt despite having very high debt-to-GDP. That’s the reason why Japan has an astounding debt-to-GDP ratio and still enjoys some of the lowest rates ever. Investors have bet for so long that there would be a run on Japanese debt and have ended up so ruined that in financial circles that trade is called “the Widowmaker”. (Here’s a more detailed analysis by my former colleague Joe Weisenthal at Business Insider.)
---
You don’t have to take my word for it. How about Alan Greenspan? He said (PDF): ”[A] government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency. A fiat money system, like the ones we have today, can produce such claims without limit.”

[fasttense]

1. That is the key to why using a household budget as an analogy to our debt is stupid

Unless you have a printing press in the basement of course.

[BanTheGOP]

2. That's not the point. The point is to migrate society from capitalist to progressive tenets. n/t