hypothetical question

[donothing]

If someone asked this question: "So, we owe China 15 trillion or whatever. We print out 15 trillion, hand it to them and say, we are square" How would you go about explaining how this would make the U.S. dollar like some of those African countries where they had to print million dollar bills because their money system was ruined.

 

[Brett_Cameron]

google Modern Monetary Theory.

 

[GrayHare]

The US economy is so large, it would take lots more printing than $15 trillion to replicate, say, Zimbabwe's inflation rate. Housel yesterday posted a nice update of who owns the US debt. We in the US owe most of it ourselves. Japan is about to pass China as the largest foreign creditor. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/12/11/who-owns-our-national-debt.aspx