Why is the US in so much debt? (2013)

ALL debt creates money. If you use your credit card, you are creating money that allows you to buy something that you don't have the cash in hand for. The problem with that is that you have to EARN that money so you can pay it back.

That's called "borrowing from your future."

Sovereign debt IS NO DIFFERENT.

The US has already spent that thirty trillion (and probably more, in truth). If you don't want the dollar to collapse, that thirty trillion ought to be paid back. It won't be, because the US is bankrupt. There's no way to restructure the US economy without it collapsing into chaos.

If you have dollars, spend them to obtain things that are "real"* while you can, otherwise you'll be left with thousands/millions of pieces of colored paper. Think that can't happen? When was the last time you paid for a burger with Confederate Dollars?

* "real" in this case means something that actually exists, like a lump of copper, or a building, or a bicycle, of a ton of rice. Money or gold in a bank is not yours as the bank can confiscate it at any time: You are classed as 'an unsecured creditor' of the bank.

"If you can't touch it or hold it in your hot little hand, you DON'T own it."

At this point, by that logic, the US owns the world a few times over.

>"If the bonds disappeared, so would the money, because there'd be nothing backing it."

Not true, because each original dollar spawns more additional dollars through fractional reserve banking. So the original bond can be repaid with tax revenue without taking all the currency out of existence. Maybe if there was no fractional reserve banking then this would be true.

Secondly, buying government bonds are not the only way that the central bank can create money.

- Dick Cheney