@nerdman @dcjogger And no sign that it won't keep increasing, and an absolute certainty it'll never be paid back. America has doomed itself with its profligacy.

@billblake2018 @dcjogger It'll be paid back, just with highly devaluated dollars. This is one reason I don't like playing with bonds and stocks. One day it's all going to go to shit and not bounce back. Real estate is where it's at. You can't print more land.

@nerdman @dcjogger Before we even come close to paying it back, our creditors will stop accepting dollars--because they'll know they're worthless and getting even more worthless by the hour. And we'll have nothing else with which to pay our debts. So, no, the debt will not be paid off.

Trouble with land is that, when things get really bad, there's eminent domain. So even real estate isn't a good long term investment. But almost certainly better than stocks and bonds.

@billblake2018 @dcjogger Well, if debt is not paid back eventually there will be easing, and eventually high inflation. At that moment people will start getting off the dollar and eventually the whole thing will blow up.

But Keynes did say at least one thing right: "the market can usually remain crazy longer than we can remain solvent", or something ot that effect. Was it even Keynes that said that? IDK.

In any case you always have a few gold coins too. Just in case. And the real estate you don't keep it all concentrated in one place either.

@nerdman @dcjogger It's hard to predict what'll happen when the world's largest economy all of a sudden reveals it is insolvent and run by gangsters. It won't be a market-based solution, though. More likely, it'll be deals in which small investors get screwed and big investors acquire lots of (non-financial) wealth.