The U.S. can get away with our inflationary monetary policy shenanigans because we (still) have legacy reserve currency status in the world. Currently, banks a

The U.S. can get away with our inflationary monetary policy shenanigans because we (still) have legacy reserve currency status in the world. Currently, banks are being paid interest to keep money in government coffers, so they have no interest in lending it (the economy is also weak, which is likely a factor as well). We do have inflationary pressure in the U.S., which is probably underreported due to the CPI being taken out of official figures. In the event that there was meaningful GDP growth in the U.S., high inflation would likely be part and parcel. If we didn't have carte blanche in terms of printing all the money we wanted, the pressure would be all on fiscal policy, as it is in Greece. An apt comparison could be U.S. state governments, where they must maintain a balanced budget. Either you can inflate your currency (which destroys savings), you can increase taxes (which negatively affects growth), or you can cut spending to actually match what comes in. The U.S. has the luxury to do the former for a while thanks to rational monetary and fiscal policy (long) in our past and the fact that our economy is still relatively productive. We are living on borrowed time in this regard. Greece does not have the luxury, and has reached the inevitable end of collectivist economic policy.