As government debt is equivalent to private sector savings (ignoring foreign savings for simplicity), it is fairly easy to see why governments run near permanent deficits.

As the economy grows, the private sector tends to want to save more. Hence, only the government is left to take on the debt (unless you want to involve the foreign sector and run a massive foreign trade surplus, but that is just moving the problem up to the international level instead as it is basically a zero sum problem)

That said, there is no reason to pay interest on all that debt. To allow more private sector savings, the government can issue currency with or without interest. However, the same people who whine about the debt tend to also complain about "monetizing the debt" (a.k.a. issuing zero interest debt).

Way to make my point. Germany is not a sovereign currency issuer. Neither is Greece.

No you don't. The bond vs currency balance has minimal impact on inflation. Especially considering what the current bond rates are.

The way that you get hyperinflation is if the currency issuer wants to consume more resources than it can tax from the economy. Considering that the US production capacity is currently underutilized, that is unlikely, outside of governmental collapse or civil war.

Also, the platinum coin itself has no impact on inflation at all. It simply removes the artificial restrictions that prevent the government from fulfilling its debts obligations. (restrictions that are constitutionally questionable I might add)

Sovereign currency issuers controls the interest rates of their own bonds. All bond traders knows that.

1. Usenet with clients that allowed people to manage huge amounts of messages via ignoring and filtering
2. Forums such as Slashdot where you could no longer ignore/filter.
3. Linear forums where you could no longer have threads inside threads
4. Facebook/Youtube where you got further limitations on comments.
5. Twitter where the message length was down to under 200 characters.

It is fairly pathetic that first world countries in this day and age aren't able to provide the basic dignity of decent payed work to all its citizens.

Anyone living in a country with involuntary unemployment has no reason whatsoever to be proud of their country. Developed countries my ass. More like undeveloped barbaric countries. All modern first world countries have the capacity to afford to provide low skill jobs to all their citizens (and the job possibilities exists as well) . They just choose to not do so, because of greed, pure evil and utter stupidity (not necessarily in that order).

And no, European "socialist" countries aren't any better than the US. Being treated as a Lab rat or a Slave doesn't make much difference. I guess you feel better as a lab rat as long as you generally won't be subjected to any cruel experiments, but in both cases you are treated as subhuman and subject to the whims of your owner(s).

A perfect test to find experienced slashdot readers.

An ordinary person will find the above quote gibberish. But an experienced slashdot reader will see it for a second and automatically translate it to i<10.

Hyperinflation happens to countries who lose control of their production resources via

* Foreign debt traps because they aren't a sovereign fiat country. (See Weimar)
* Resource destruction. (See Zimbabwe land reform)
* Loss of government taxing legitimacy, meaning that it really isn't their production resources any more. (Look for hyperinflations related to civil war and you'll probably find some good examples)

I think I may have missed some reason, but it all comes down to production resources in the end. Hyperinflation doesn't happen because the government spends more than it taxes. It happen because your country can't produce enough to cover the basic needs of the population/government.

What really brought Greece down was the Euro. Currency standards have always been horrible in bad times.

Currency standards allow foreign and non-foreign entities to control and strangle your economy, which is a really horrible thing.

Yes, Greece is corrupt. But if they hadn't been caught in the Euro, that corruption would have had a far lower impact on the economy as a whole. Instead of a full out depression, their currency would have inflated a bit, and non-basic stuff imported stuff would have gotten more expensive, while most everyone continued on working as normal.

Depends. Taxes have nothing to do with government spending if you live in a modern sovereign fiat country. Taxing by a fiat sovereign has two purposes. Keeping inflation down, and discourage negative externalities. One of the most negative ones being huge wealth imbalances.

This of course only applies to the sovereign and not someone else who has permission to tax in the sovereign's territory. And it of course also don't apply to countries who lack economic sovereignty.