When will the USA pay their debts, if ever?

[wasserman99]

If you think about it the USA has never paid much of it's debt back since the days of Jackson (who hated banks and paid the national debt off).  Basically it will roll its debt forward forever (or as long as investors will allow it) and the US will rely on inflation to reduce the real value of the debt.  Even a 2% inflation rate halves the real value of debt every 30 years or so, and I think we can expect higher inflation than that going forward.  (Though I have been wrong on this before.)

There was a time when people just assumed countries would never pay back debt.  A lot of early UK debt was perpetual.

The US has run budget deficits for well over 100 years with the exception of the late 90's. Whenever a country is running a budget deficit, on a net basis it is not able to repay it's debts, but must borrow additional funds to fund it's deficit. The theory is that as long as a country's economy(income) continues to grow, that the total debt will shrink as a percentage of the total economy as long as the debt grows at a slower pace then the economy does.

[shawshankinmate37927]

The US has run budget deficits for well over 100 years with the exception of the late 90's....

The politicians managed to balance the budget for a couple of years in the late 90's only because they raided the Social Security Trust Fund and replaced those funds with IOUs from the US Treasury.

[Swordsoffreedom]

When will the USA pay their debts, if ever?

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

You know that is actually an excellent question

I don't expect the USA to actually end up with a debt surplus for centuries to say the least assuming that their fiat based monetary system lasts that long, rather I expect the USA currency to collapse severely devalue and lose purchasing power but not collapse or for their debt to be erased one way or another by occupations/wars with other countries lol.

(You know that whole I owed the previous government 1 dollar but decided to occupy it instead and clean my debt books since I don't recognize the new government lol)

[coinits]

Never, take your precautions with this knowledge

This.

A default is inevitable. It's a good idea to get into a position where you are as shielded as possible from it.

They cant default,  but they can inflate it away.

True but with China being one of the largest holders of US debt they would see it happening and start a sell of of the debt and then collapse the USA Economy, or just go straight to nukes.

[oceans]

It's physically not possible for them to do so now because they have allowed themselves to get too far into debt. The longer it is left the more gets pushed on to meaning it's really a never ending circle for them now. They could try to pay their debts but it may never make a difference now.

[Kluge]

We over-focus on federal government debt. The US is in a relatively normal position compared to other developed countries and has low assets:debt. The latter is important because the government can certainly tax more than income to get out of debt.

[PeterHarrisonCY]

"When will the USA eventually collapse on their debts?" would have been a better question...how long can this charade continue?

[knight22]

Never. There is not enough money to pay back all the debts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFDe5kUUyT0

[gts476]

let other countries get enough gold, hyper inflate the debt away, allow gold to rise to meet value of all money, balance sheet zerod, start again.

[knight22]

let other countries get enough gold, hyper inflate the debt away, allow gold to rise to meet value of all money, balance sheet zerod, start again.

Or just pay back the debts with non debt based money instead of paying them back each time with more debts.

[wasserman99]

We over-focus on federal government debt. The US is in a relatively normal position compared to other developed countries and has low assets:debt. The latter is important because the government can certainly tax more than income to get out of debt.

I think a much better focus would be on the unfunded liabilities of our social programs like social security and medicare/medicaid (and now obama care). Once you take these programs into consideration things will start to look much worse for the US.

[LiteCoinGuy]

Exactly. The US can purposely devalue the dollar where $1,000,000 will only be worth $1 today. Pay off $15 trillion in debt by inflating the currency.

The only problem with that approach will be that they cannot borrow any more and USD will stop being the global reserve currency.

that would be true, nobody would use this crap anymore and i guess we will see this in slow motion. china accumulates more gold than any other country in the world. why   ?

[johny08]

We over-focus on federal government debt. The US is in a relatively normal position compared to other developed countries and has low assets:debt. The latter is important because the government can certainly tax more than income to get out of debt.

I think a much better focus would be on the unfunded liabilities of our social programs like social security and medicare/medicaid (and now obama care). Once you take these programs into consideration things will start to look much worse for the US.

you reduce debts by inflation not by paying back, when you are a state.

[tinof]

Never. There is not enough money to pay back all the debts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFDe5kUUyT0

I am sure the Arab and Chinese will be glad to buy certain assets and technology patents from the US rather than getting paid back in FIAT.

[botany]

Never. There is not enough money to pay back all the debts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFDe5kUUyT0

I am sure the Arab and Chinese will be glad to buy certain assets and technology patents from the US rather than getting paid back in FIAT.

They already own half of America. 

[coininvestor]

The debt, not to be confused with budget, is the money supply.  That's why it is referred to as a debt based monetary system.  All money is loaned into existence at interest.  Of course the interest money is never created.  That's how competition for fiat is created.   Look at the federal debt in the US it's 17 trillion or so, I think I lost track about three wars ago, that's the total amount of dollars floating around mostly over seas.   Although that trend may change in the future.   Fiat is not the only form of money of course.  It's only currency, not real value.  People are poor because they think currency is wealth.  It's not.  Currency is just rivers of debt flowing.  Things with value are real wealth such as government bonds, stocks, mortgage agreements, real estate, commodities and even space ships.  Of course real estate ownership doesn't exist for peasants in communist countries such as every country on earth.  Only Governments are allowed to truly own property which they are allowed to reclaim from the peasants at will.  Of course they must be careful not to do it to much lest the peasants revolt.   

[SunBin]

Never. There is not enough money to pay back all the debts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFDe5kUUyT0

I am sure the Arab and Chinese will be glad to buy certain assets and technology patents from the US rather than getting paid back in FIAT.

They already own half of America. 

Where is the statistic come from? Is there a source to back this up?

[itsAj]

We over-focus on federal government debt. The US is in a relatively normal position compared to other developed countries and has low assets:debt. The latter is important because the government can certainly tax more than income to get out of debt.

I think a much better focus would be on the unfunded liabilities of our social programs like social security and medicare/medicaid (and now obama care). Once you take these programs into consideration things will start to look much worse for the US.

you reduce debts by inflation not by paying back, when you are a state.

Inflation will reduce everyone's debts when you measure the amount of effort/work that will need to be done in order to earn enough to pay back the debt.

[Swordsoffreedom]

We over-focus on federal government debt. The US is in a relatively normal position compared to other developed countries and has low assets:debt. The latter is important because the government can certainly tax more than income to get out of debt.

I think a much better focus would be on the unfunded liabilities of our social programs like social security and medicare/medicaid (and now obama care). Once you take these programs into consideration things will start to look much worse for the US.

I would be more concerned in the confidence other nations have in the US dollar if that gets eroded it doesn't matter how much the government of the United States prints out if no one is willing to accept it.
That said right now the geopolitical tide is shifting towards the Russians Chinese and the Latin Americas so how that will impact the standby us dollar in a few years is much more of a concern than how it handles in its day to day.

[zetaray]

The government do not need to pay off the debt, they just need to issue new debt to cover the old debt. It would be a huge achievement if they can lower it, nevermind paying it back.