Is there a generally accepted Objectivist viewpoint on whether taxpayers have a moral obligation to pay off debts incurred by their government? More specifically, if a group of Objectivists were somehow elected to run the country, what would be their proper course of action regarding the existing national debt?

And the Mafia made a profit!

LOL! Fair point. :)

>Can someone economically literate please help us understand how this is possible?

OK, think about this, we're at $18T+ debt. there is obvious no such thing as "economically literate".

Frozen my arse!
That's just way too easy to check out.
The Treasury puppets and all things else moving lips Obamanation can go stuff it.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

"the Treasury redeems maturing debt held by the public and issues new debt held by the public"

The Treasury is redeeming higher interest bonds with lower interest bonds.

Who buys the lower interest bonds? The FED. The government spends the money to keep afloat. Then the FED asks the Treasury to print up Federal Reserve Notes in the amount of the bonds purchased, and lends them to the banks at no interest, which the banks release as loans up to 10 times the amount of the original bond (Only required to keep a 10% reserve) which dilutes the value of our currency, effectively stealing cents from every dollar holder to fund the Fed's purchase and garner interest on loans for the bank. Those cents add up to the amount you would have invested in savings accounts if interest rates were governed by the market.

The banks get a free loan of your savings to them, they pay you no interest and never give back the money. Theft.

They're both playing games.

Of course they are. To use a not to long ago comment about another subject but it fits here "what difference does it make"!
Life will go on regardless of the amount of debt that our wonderful government chooses to incur.
welcome to the new america!

To them it is a game. They are keeping the fiat currency going as long as they can.

It's a fib.

If the accountant decide to move all deficit spending and subsequent bond sales to some mysterious slush funds or directly to the Feds books then it won't show up. Mobsters have used this type of fraudulent accounting for generations. The only difference between the Mafia and the looters in Washington is that the looters got elected.

Does A = A anymore? Not if you believe the debt clock. When I see this story about the debt clock being stopped, I can't help but think of Francisco D'Anconia's banner "Brother, You Asked For It!"

And this is not reassuring, but should be no surprise given the continuing growth between U3 and U6. I mean it's only fair to pay these unemployed people, right? <sarcasm /off>

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/budget...