How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes

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But our “good fortune” can’t last forever. Ultimately the 
U.S. government will have only two options: default (tell our 
creditors that we can’t pay, and negotiate a settlement) or 
infl ate (print money to pay off maturing debt). Either option 
will lead to painful consequences. Default, which does offer 
the possibility of a real reckoning and a fresh beginning, is 
actually the better alternative. Unfortunately, while infl ation 
is worse, it is also the more politically expedient.