Hacker News Reader

Comment by carterschonwald | Hacker News Reader

The us debt is denominated in usd. Countries in the EU don’t have the same luxury.

You're proposing to print away the debt during a period of already high inflation. While you're technically correct that we can avoid default by printing more money, the practical consequences of monetizing the national debt right now, would be catastrophic hyperinflation.

> You’re proposing to print away the debt during a period of already high inflation.

Current inflation isn’t that high (YoY is still high because its trailing), and if there is a recession, it will naturally fall faster, and easy money is the natural policy in those conditions, independent of debt concerns (which monetary policy generally is, that’s kind of the point of an independent central bank.)

  > we can avoid default by printing more money

isnt "printing" usually done through issuing bonds?

do those increase inflation?

The treasury takes on debt when it issues bonds, but the Federal Reserve expands the money supply when it buys those bonds. It's a two-step process.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com