You can't print money out of a debt crisis without economic consequence.
This "printing money" business is
mostly myth and I'm surprised to see you buy into it.
1) The government “prints money”.
The government really doesn’t “print money” in any meaningful sense. Most of the money in our monetary system exists because banks created it through the loan creation process. The only money the government really creates is due to the process of notes and coin creation. These forms of money, however, exist to facilitate the use of bank accounts. That is, they’re not issued directly to consumers, but rather are distributed through the banking system as bank customers need these forms of money. If the government “prints” anything you could say they print Treasury Bonds, which are securities, not money. The entire concept of the government “printing money” is generally a misportrayal by the mainstream media...
3) The US government is running out of money and must pay back the national debt.
There seems to be this strange belief that a nation with a printing press whose debt is denominated in the currency it can print, can become insolvent. There are many people who complain about the government “printing money” while also worrying about government solvency. It’s a very strange contradiction. Of course, the US government could theoretically print up as much money as it wanted. As I described in myth number 1, that’s not technically how the system is presently designed (because banks create most of the money), but that doesn’t mean the government is at risk of “running out of money”. As I’ve described before, the US government is a contingent currency issuer and could always create the money needed to fund its own operations. Now, that doesn’t mean that this won’t contribute to high inflation or currency debasement, but solvency (not having access to money) is not the same thing as inflation (issuing too much money).
If Greece had the capacity to peg its own currency, it would still be up a creek.
Well they did have that capacity, before they joined the EU. Had they not done so, their predicament would have been more manageable since they would have had control over their own currency. The ECB is imposing ridiculous austerity measures in return for their bailout,
making it difficult for their economy to recover:
If Greece didn't use the euro, it could have boosted its economy by printing more of its currency, the drachma. This would have lowered the value of the drachma in international markets, making Greek exports more competitive. It would also lower domestic interest rates, encouraging domestic investment and making it easier for Greek debtors to service their debts.
But Greece shares its monetary policy with the rest of Europe. And the German-dominated European Central Bank has given Europe a monetary policy that's about right for Germany, but so tight that it has thrust Greece into a depression.
So Greece is squeezed between a crushing debt burden — 177 percent of GDP, about twice the level in the United States — and a deep depression that makes it difficult to raise the money it needs to make its debt payments. Any tax hikes or spending cuts enacted to help pay back the debt would just worsen the depression.
"Too high" isn't something that has a hard number attached to it because it exists on a gradient and is dependent on other variables. That said, 100% of annual GDP is generally considered a benchmark for there being a problem. Crisis numbers are 1.5 to 2 times that usually. But it really depends on a complex array of factors. Some nations can have a higher ratio than others and still retain good credit. We're currently at 104%.
So we can expect to keep hearing about the apocalyptic effects of rising debt no matter how long we go without seeing any of the predicted effects come about. If nearly $20 trillion isn't enough to even cause a blip on the radar I don't see how $50 trillion is going to be so devastating. We were supposed to get hyperinflation at $15 trillion, and we're barely seeing any inflation at all $5 trillion past that mark.