In the words of Peter Schiff, the only thing standing between us and default is the fed and its printing press, but the only thing enabling the fed and the printing press is that the world hasn’t figured out our predicament yet (presumably that we’re bankrupt and aren’t going to be able to pay back our debts). My question is how is it that our creditors don’t realize the predicament yet? Any bit of due diligence at all reveals the predicament, and we’re talking about sophisticated investors, right? So what is the real reason that foreign creditors keep lending money to the U.S. government? Apropos of that, can anyone provide a succinct explanation of the roles of the fed/interest rates/inflation, foreign creditors, reserve currency status etc. in propping up the U.S. economy? How does it (not) work? I’m having trouble bringing it all together, understanding how each phenomenon interplays with the other. Thank you in advance.
