Quote from piezoe:
Zebra says:
" No, if the US were to print dollars and use them, for example, to buy a new statue (or computer or desk or whatever) from Europe, the dollar would go down but inflation would be exported to europe.
Ah, but Zebra, we are exporting our inflation, as you'll find out when you exchange the dollar denominated interest on the US Treasuries you bought for Euros. On behalf of all U.S. citizens may i offer you our sincere gratitude for doing your part to help us inflate our way out of debt.
I think you, like 99.9% of your fellow Americans are seriously mistaken.
You can only inflate your way out of debt as long as your creditors allow you to, and other countries will only continue to allow it until they can fight back.
Five years from now china will be a serious threat and it will be clear that the world's balance of power has shifted. At that point, they can export inflation (and alot more) to you and you can't do anything about it, or they can simply stop buying treasuries.
If the US's biggest creditors stop lending, interest rates spike, the dollar rallies, and you deflate your way _into_ debt. By then you have a very very very difficult to solve economic problem because printing money usually only helps if you can inflate someone else or if you're economy is in recession, in all other cases it usually makes matters worse.
The smart thing to do now would be to 'cooperate' (ie, play by the rules) and try to foster their cooperation in the future, because if you defect now (ie screw their reserves by printing endlessly ), in five years they can defect forever and do whatever suits their economy best.
This table makes it very clear:
http://www.ustreas.gov/tic/mfh.txt
They're a communist country, they're ok with extremes and they change their minds pretty quickly

You should be angry at your government for destroying your future, not supporting them and thanking your creditors for being stupid, they are not...