Even if we just ignore inflation and other issues, there's still a hard limit because governments don't literally just print money, but sells bonds at market rates. As confidence in the economic stability declines the interest rates the government is required to offer on those bonds trends upward. So right now even 10 year treasuries are selling with just under 5% interest. As a result we're now paying $1.4 trillion per year in interest alone, and that number is going up far faster than the economy is growing. This [1] graph looks quite disconcerting. And it's a vicious cycle. The less confidence there is in the stability of this game, the more the government will have to pay to sell that debt. And the more they have to pay, the more debt they end up needing.

[1] - https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A180RC1A027NBEA

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pydry 10 hours ago | parent [-]

>governments don't literally just print money, but sells bonds at market rates

no, sometimes they literally do exactly that.

google for quantitative easing. that's what it is and it's a tool that can always be used by monetarily sovereign countries to bring bond interest rates down by as much as they want.

insolvency thus isnt possible.

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hvb2 6 hours ago | parent [-]

> insolvency thus isnt possible.

You might want to look up Zimbabwe or Germany (after WW1). When your money becomes worth less than the paper it's printed on...

So, it's possible, and has happened before.

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raincom 6 hours ago | parent [-]

As long exporter nations want to swap their real assets with digits (US dollars), US is solvent.

	▲	hvb2 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, and that's a function of knowing what you can buy for that dollar. As soon as you start devaluing your currency to get out of debt, not so much. I believe Argentina is a fine example of that