I'd like to highlight that debt isn't so much a problem as the trade imbalance is. And the idea that no currently traded specie will have value at some arbitrar

I'd like to highlight that debt isn't so much a problem as the trade imbalance is. And the idea that no currently traded specie will have value at some arbitrary point in the near future is silly: the USD might not be the currency of global exchange, but there will still be such a currency (likely the Euro, the RMB, or a synthetic currency) or exchange becomes incredibly difficult. China is not likely to stop intervening in foreign currency markets, though there is a substantial risk to their economy if they do so. But people forget that long before China was subsidizing US trade imbalances, Japan was. And they'd likely replace China as the purchaser of dollar securities in order to stave off the inflation of the yen. Please visit http://www.bookstore.petersoninstitute.org/publications/interstitial.cfm?ResearchID=1290 http://www.bookstore.petersoninstitute.org/publications/inte... for more information.