Instead of an explicit default, governments often employ 'financial repression.' This strategy, a 'soft default,' involves policies that lead to inflation, steadily eroding the purchasing power of citizens' savings and effectively stealing their economic value to manage national debt.

Instead of a transparent default, the U.S. government's strategy is to devalue its debt by keeping interest rates below inflation. This policy, known as 'financial repression,' erodes the real value of the dollar, effectively transferring wealth from savers and bondholders to the government to pay down its massive debt.

The common narrative that America's post-WWII economic boom paid off its debt is a myth. IMF research reveals that growth accounted for less than 25% of the debt reduction. The majority was achieved through decades of financial repression, where artificially low interest rates let inflation erode the debt's real value.

The strategy to manage debt involves holding interest rates below the true rate of inflation. This slowly erodes the value of the debt—and any cash savings. In this environment, holding dollars is a guaranteed way to lose purchasing power, while assets like stocks, real estate, and crypto are likely to climb in nominal value.

When the prevailing narrative, supported by Fed actions, is that the economy will 'run hot,' it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Consumers and institutions alter their behavior by borrowing more and buying hard assets, which in turn fuels actual inflation.

There is no plan to truly pay off America's debt. The actual strategy is to use the invisible tax of inflation to transfer the debt's burden onto citizens who don't understand monetary policy. Those who hold cash and lack hard assets will unknowingly finance the government's deficit by losing their purchasing power over time.

To manage national debt, the government uses "financial repression": keeping interest rates below inflation. This acts as a hidden tax, devaluing savings and hurting the middle class. It's compared to chemotherapy—a painful process that could destroy the economy before it cures the debt problem.

The U.S. faces a massive debt problem with only two politically tenable exits: massive economic growth fueled by AI, or devaluing the debt through inflation. With the AI boom proving slower than hoped, the government is being forced down the path of inflation, using covert methods to avoid public backlash against austerity or default.

With debt-to-GDP at 130%, the implicit policy is to use inflation to devalue the debt burden. This is becoming explicit, with proposals like using tariff money for direct stimulus checks. This strategy favors risk assets and creates a 'full on euphoria tech bubble' if real yields go negative again.