When you're the global reserve currency you can just inflate the currency and kill anyone who tries to use something else.
Cheaper that way because you gotta kill less people.
(joking, but also sadly not joking).
Why past tense? Dilution remains a good solution to most pollutants, carbon included. That it stops working after a point doesn't make it useless per se.
Another strange thing I learned recently is that in 1930s there was another tariff frenzy as well that lasted until the WW2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot%E2%80%93Hawley_Tariff_Ac...
German manufacturing is in decline because it relied on dirt-cheap Russian energy. It's not cost competitive otherwise.
https://www.energyconnects.com/news/gas-lng/2025/february/ge... Europe has spent three painful years weaning itself off gas from the east with the biggest impact felt in Germany, the region’s biggest economy. German industry was built on cheap Russian gas and rising energy prices have already trammeled growth and forced some manufacturers to move production abroad.
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/09/a-software-glitch-not-...
jleyank•2mo ago
dh2022•2mo ago
(It is my personal opinion that the current US Financial situation is due to GWB's presidency. He started this country on this road.)
[0] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1126891/
jameslk•2mo ago
Social security and Medicare liabilities mostly wiped out any gains
What surplus there was came from both tax increases and reductions in spending. Along with a strong economy and low employment for tax revenue in the dotcom heyday
Any realistic change to pay down the debt would require substantial structural changes at this point. There’s no political incentive to do anything about that until runaway inflation and the US credit ratings start to really mess things up, and by that point it’s pretty much too late
jaredhallen•2mo ago
mannyv•2mo ago
The practical reason for not retiring the debt was that the world needs a zero risk benchmark.
The did retire the long bond, though.