The U.S. and UK Are on the Brink of Debt Disaster

By Ed Kemp, Reuters
Posted on January 24, 2009, Printed on January 24, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/122302/

The United States and the United Kingdom stand on the brink of the largest debt crisis in history.

While both governments experiment with quantitative easing, bad banks to absorb non-performing loans, and state guarantees to restart bank lending, the only real way out is some combination of widespread corporate default, debt write-downs and inflation to reduce the burden of debt to more manageable levels. Everything else is window-dressing.