[Symmetry]

The debt situation might get out of hand, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're headed for inflation. The US has gone for hundreds of years without a default[1] and I'm sort of proud of that as a US citizen, but if worst came to worst we could always just default - unlike, say, 1920s Germany.

[1] There was a few payment in the 1970s that was slightly late due to a clerical error, but that hardly counts.

[cperciva]

Removing the ability to exchange US dollars for gold was arguably a form of default.

[grandalf]

I agree that it doesn't necessarily mean we're headed for inflation, but I think the counterfactual is that the US is headed for even more dramatic economic hegemony.