[jbkiv]

Wait, am I missing something here?

The ONLY way for any government to escape their massive debt is inflation. The US is no different from other countries that used the pandemic as an excuse to prop all kind of businesses.

This is no different that real estate. If you have bought property at a fixed rate, then high inflation (= higher salaries) will make your loan look smaller year after year.

Of course the collateral damage is a weaker US$. But what is the alternative to the US$? Crypto? Yuan (see the recent move of the oil producing countries to accept non US $ payments).

The US knows that there is NO alternative to the US $, hence their reckless borrowing strategy (= issue more Treasuries).

But wait! Isn't what the HN is used to hear? "There is no alternative to the dominant position of Microsoft Explorer, Blackberry or anything else. Until THERE IS a replacement and a newcomer replaces the incumbant.

I am really worried over the long term about the so-called invicible US $ as a store of value.

[adam_arthur]

Problem is that all central banks acted in coordination to print massively. So even if USD loses value in absolute terms, it doesn't in relative term.

You're right though, modern age monetary policy has been about inflating assets and monetizing fiscal deficit spending.

It's basically a big transfer of wealth from the younger generation to the older one (if you look at how lower interest rates pull forward valuations). When people talk about cheap housing or college in the 70s/80s, it was because the interest rate was over 10%. In modern society the best "mathematical" move tends to be to finance every purchase and pay them off as slowly as possible. I'd rather be debt free for peace of mind, personally, even if the math proves it to be the worse option.