Greenspan comes clean and endorses the 'Zimbabwe-Weimar Solution'

by Bill Anderson, LRC Blog
Aug. 07, 2011

Hey, those idiots at S&P don't know anything about money and U.S. debt! Says who? The Great Alan Greenspan, that's who! Default? Fuhgeddaboutit! Here is the latest:

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Sunday ruled out the chance of a US default following S&P's decision to downgrade America's credit rating.

"The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that. So there is zero probability of default" said Greenspan on NBC's Meet the Press. (Emphasis mine)

"What I think the S&P thing did was to hit a nerve that there's something basically bad going on, and it's hit the self-esteem of the United States, the psyche" said Greenspan.

Granted, because I am in the Austrian camp, I don't know anything about economics and money, but I still think my question should be asked: Is not the very act of paying a debt using newly-printed money in itself an act of default? Or, maybe I should be asking a more pertinent question: What has Greenspan been smoking?