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I think this is all basically reasonable, but I feel it's relevant to point out that people overestimate short term effects and underestimate long term effects.
It's true that nothing ever happens in the sense that actual revolutionary events are incredibly rare. But things do change over the years and decisions can have lasting consequences.
Having some kind of feedback mechanism to prevent debt crisis is necessary, and I think that whilst inflation and its unpopularity is certainly one such mechanism, it doesn't seem like enough to me. I think this disagreement may be the main source of your optimism and of my pessimism.
I guess a test to my evaluation will be France's fate in the next two to five years. Based on the state of her debt and the total unwillingness of politicians to cut anything even in the face of high inflation and interest rates, I predict a Greek like scenario of imposed reform in that timeframe. The US is a different beast because of the specificity of the dollar and general dynamism of its economy, but if even in France nothing ever happens, I'll reevaluate.
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