Bill Bonner is absolutely correct in calling the monetization of debt The Grandest of Larcenies. He points out that, “Rather than honestly repaying what it has borrowed, a government merely prints up extra currency and uses it to pay its loans. The debt is “monetized”…transformed into an increase in the money supply, thereby lowering the purchasing power of everybody’s savings.”
As I argue in my new book, The End of Money and the Future of Civilization, enabling governments to spend more than they take in is half of the purpose of the central banking regime, the other half being to give the banking elite the privilege of charging interest on the people’s own credit.
As Bonner further points out, “Of course, the Fed will not want to do such a dastardly deed; but it will do it anyway.” They are desperate to keep the game going and the only other alternative is to let interest rates rise as government seeks to sell more of its debt to increasingly reluctant lenders abroad.
Government, for its part, must either cut its profligate spending or raise taxes, or both. From the rhetoric coming out of Washington, it is clear that social programs, like Social Security and Medicare, are on the chopping block, but not sacred cows like military spending or bailouts for banks and corporate dinosaurs–the empire must be preserved. Trial balloons for new taxes are now being floated. Is a VAT (value added tax) on the horizon?
As in the Weimar Republic between the World Wars, the politicians and bankers today may decide that hyper-inflation is the least onerous of their available options. The middle-class can say goodbye to their hard-earned savings.
Beyond Money 