Gold, page-2259

Some US politicians say they are alarmed by the national debt, but I don't think the ruling elite are too concerned. It seems to be regarded as a luxury which the "essential nation" can afford, particularly as they regard it as a running tab with payback as an optionality. Consider it as a perk of being numero uno.
But what happens when the essential nation loses the "essential currency", and the petrodollar has been circumvented by a critical mass of trade outside the dollar system?
Right now the US needs to massively deleverage its debt, but to do that the banks need to lend to productive enterprises to increase employment and wages so that consumers can pay down debt. Instead we have banks lending to corporations for share buybacks, or through covert QE they buy and hold Treasury bonds, none of which increases productive capacity or productivity. No wonder the economy is in steady decline.
In other words, in a "normal" economic cycle deleveraging, while unpleasant, would be allowed to occur, but this time around the Fed has no interest rate lever to start the process.
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