Hard to wrap your head around such big numbers but if you had a trillion dollars laid rnd to end,.it would streach about 4 million miles,...PAST THE SUN,.(about 9,690,656,566) We don't even have enough paper to print a trillion dollars so the gov does it in bank issues,

How many trillions have we issued lately? I don't see how it won't affect inflation. Do you know what happened when after WW1 Germany printed a lot of paper making their currency nearly worthless. A wheelbarrow full of marks could barely buy loaf of bread. Similar in Venezuela,..people there after a while didn't even bother to go take their lifesaving out of the bank.

So true.

We are down to two political parties:

Foolish/Careless and

Stupid/Crazy.

If one party and presidential administration hadn't maliciously aligned/targeted the Tea Party with the full force of the IRS behind it, this country actually had a chance to prosper several more decades.

Where did you see that we don't have enough paper to print $1T? There is current over $2T in US currency currently in circulation. And we "retire" a bunch of that every 5-10 years or so (depending on the dollar amount of the bill).

So, we print probably an average of $200M-$400M in cash every year. Seems like we'd have enough paper to print $1T if we had to.

But, of course, we don't. Probably not because we aren't capable of it, but because that is how it works when we "issue" it for something like a new aircraft carrier (or 6). It's not like we're paying for those in $100 bills. :)

JB someone once mentioned on another post-- we're cutting our own throats.

I thought we were going to sue China for doing this in the world court and get the 4T back?

COUNT A TRILLION:

A trillion is a thousand billion. So you’d need to be counting for 31.7 thousand years! To count one trillion dollars, one dollar per second, would take 31,688 years!

UNFUNDED USA LIABILITIES IS over 210 TRILLION according to Forbes

your federal Govt has stuffed the budget with so many super duper important items that we no longer count in Billions - trillions now easily roll off your tongue

Doggy glitter gets a share of farm bill billions

$863,000 to eradicate brown tree snakes in Guam.

dont forget" we need to pass the bill to see what's in it"

I am old and dont care anymore- Go ahead and impeach the president with 8 days left - at least Congress is not legislating

do you think they care about the Americans in lockdown - yup they gave you $600

"Could our cash and other things be worth less in the future?"

The short answer: Yes.

Google "John T. Reed The Day the Dollar Dies" to get a thorough analysis of what kind of assets are most at risk in high/hyper inflation as well as sensible recommendations for how to avoid much of the risk.

Land / houses / buildings are hard assets and therefore immune to inflation: their value simply goes up. However, if capital gains are not indexed to inflation (they aren't presently), then when you sell your "gain" isn't a value gain, it simply means you get more dollars which are then taxed as if they were a real gain in value, and therefore you do lose some of the value.

They key is to have enough LIQUID hard assets that can be used personally or exchanged to survive the day to day needs. That helps you avoid having to give up hard assets when having a "Fire Sale" would cause you to exchange a house for something like a couple months worth of groceries. Barter economies are not very efficient when it comes to high value items.

Think about the money you carry with you in your wallet or purse: $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, maybe the occasional $100s. You want asset like that for use in barter.

A few examples:

$1 = a roll of toilet paper

$5 = 12 pack of soda; 2-pack of deodorant

$10 = packet of razor blade / jug of laundry detergent

So on and so forth. Each of the commonly used bills is instead replace by items that people consume regularly and therefore need more of frequently.

Gold is terrible for barter, especially because it is so valuable. It is heavy. It is easy to steal a large amount of value contained in only a small amount of gold. Gold can be counterfeited or altered. Think gold plated lead or iron. It has to be assayed (tested) to ensure it is the proper weight and purity, and Bob down the street probably isn't going to hand you a weeks worth of food until he's convinced that the gold is real. Good luck with that since Bob doesn't have the equipment or training to verify precious metals.

When will it (high/hyper inflation) happen? No clue. I thought it would have happened by this point already, but the US is still a relatively strong player in the world where most other nations are on the same debt fueled trajectory and are weaker than us. It's sort of like playing chicken: usually whoever flinches first loses big time, but if both players stay on course long enough eventually it won't matter, because there is no time to swerve out of the way before collision.

The best answer is to be the person NOT in the car. Prepare yourself; the Govt sure isn't going to protect you.