4 ms·
Perhaps, but who would the US borrow money from later if they did that?
by ks 18y ago
Perhaps, but who would the US borrow money from later if they did that?
- nostrademons 18y agoIf war breaks out, who you're going to borrow money from is the least of your problems. ;-)
- newt0311 18y agoactually no. If the US outright repudiates debt in war, the value of the dollar would take a plunge and solders, even the patriotic ones, like to get paid for risking their lives. Furthermore, weapons and supplies are extremely expensive. When war breaks out, money is one of the biggest problems. The praetorian guard in the roman empire once killed a praetor, put his head on a pike, and paraded him/it around Rome because he refused to bribe them.
- cmars232 18y agoNot if we go to war to plunder :)
- marvin 18y agoThat's an interesting question, what would looting in modern society look like? Can you "confiscate" securities? Companies?
- krschultz 18y agooil. That's not some silly slap at the Iraq war which wasn't over oil IMO. But conquering for oil has already happened, japan in WWII and Iraq over Kuwait in thefirst gulf war just to name two.
- lacker 18y agoHeck, the government is buying huge stakes in banks at historically low prices right now. Whether they're being "confiscated" or "rescued" is just a matter of your viewpoint. You can also look at Russia for examples - the Russian government basically confiscated Yukos.
- dejb 18y agoFrom those who didn't want to be invaded or bombed I suppose.
- lacker 18y agoIn practice, we don't need to outright repudiate the debt, we can just expand the money supply (i.e. "print more dollars"). This causes inflation but is not as bad as just breaking our promises.