Although half of the US debt is held by the Federal reserve about 30% is held by international investers/governments. The US public debt is now at about 60% GDP. If inflation increases then the value of this debt to be repaid to foreign investors is reduced. Similarly, if the dollar falls in value, the value of the debt returned to foreign borrowers will be reduced.
If borrowers outside the US stop lending to the US then there could be big problems affecting the supply of money available to the US government to spend. The money supply could be maintained by printing money, but this could lead to hyper-inflation. The way inflation is controlled is through Interest Rates. This causes a problem because with a large amount of public debt the amount that has to be paid each year in interest to maintain the debt will also increase.
How have you been affected by the credit crunch?


