Originally Posted by
Nightshade
You are wrong Chris...the government cannot just arbitrarily print more money or take a loan at will. There has to be something of substance in return for these loans. Usually it falls into long term trade agreements with other countries or some other form of assistance to another country in order to get large quantities of money
Actually, the government can print money to pay off bonds if it wants. It's bad practice, but it's possible. The only thing the USG needs to attract investors is a reasonable rate of return. Bonds and notes are repaid at an interest rate and are "risk-free", making them attractive long term investments. 6% APR is pretty good on millions of dollars.