Good article. The one thing you do not touch on is which countries owe the USA money. Currently, China has defaulted on 1 trillion to US Bondholders.

And the fact that most trade is in US currency means they can simply print money to pay. It would get really interesting if the world moved away from buying or settling debt with the US dollar ... and say, went back to the gold standard.

Then we would see some rats leaving the ship.