Five years give or take for a catastrophic failure of the dollar and the govt goes right along with it. That's the sequence, not the other way.

The debt of the govt is impossible to pay back, at least with dollars worth what they were when the debt was incurred. That's one outcome: monetary inflation with the consequent reduction of the purchasing power of the dollar so that, say, a one dollar debt is repaid with a dollar worth only a penny. The other possible outcome is a deliberate default. That's only possible theoretically; it is impossible politically even though that is the only way to avoid destruction of the dollar.

So the only question is time. When will those who are buying treasury debt today stop doing so? Because when that happens, things come to a head because the govt needs to sell new debt in order to service the old debt. Without explicitly defaulting, the only option is for the treasury to accept checks from the fed and use that to pay interest. Result? runaway monetary expansion and runaway price explosion as more dollars chase the same - or even diminishing - supply of goods.

My gut feel is at most five years, but that's not an economic calculation. It's the sinking feeling in my viscera.

So, as for voting: I could see my way clear to vote for anyone who openly acknowledges the situation and who proposes to do something - anything! - about it. Willard is either too stupid or too dishonest to say what's going on. Same for 0, but I suspect in his case it is ideologically-forced stupidity.

No. I won't be voting for Willard.