[linuxftw]

> Until it can't.

It already couldn't, thus monetary easing (aka, inflation, aka increasing the money supply). Governments always default on their debts through inflation. In the US it was called "QE"

Without QE, the treasury auctions would have yielded higher rates of borrowing for the feds. Instead, QE pushed the yields down and money rushed into risk assets (stock market). We're in uncharted economic territory. How do we unwind? Right now, they're slowly letting the balance sheet shrink, but not significantly.

[tabtab]

Inflation was sub-par during the QE era.

[linuxftw]

Well, there's inflation and then there's the governments version of 'inflation.' Have you see the prices of homes and the stock market?

[hndamien]

"Inflation" should more correctly refer to the inflation of the money supply and not the corresponding rising of prices from dollar dilution.

[tabtab]

The Federal Reserve didn't seem very comfortable using QE, but felt it was needed due to the depth of the crash. We were lucky we didn't have a repeat of the 25% unemployment of the 1930's. There's no law of nature that says all slumps are repairable. When things get bad enough, the masses rise up and demand socialism, because "average" socialism is usually better than crashed capitalism. Eating bland food and standing in line is better than death.

[linuxftw]

Short of a meteor/nuclear strike, I can't imagine mass starvation in the US, we simply produce too much food. Without QE, there would have been economic slowdown, banks would have been shuttered, but IMO life would have otherwise carried on as normal.