Imagine a 500lbs man. Eighty per cent body fat. His arteries are clogged, his heart is on the blink. A doctor tells him to do 100 burpees a day to save his life. It’s not bad advice – burpees are great for losing weight – but let’s be honest. The man can’t even kneel, let alone jump. The method isn’t wrong. It’s just impossible.
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That man is the US economy. And the debt – all US$36.65 trillion of it – is the fat.
Let’s cut through the noise. Recent headlines have been about the supposed feud between Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump. Sure, the friction is real, and their political interests don’t quite align any more. But the real story isn’t personal. It’s structural. It’s about how the world’s most powerful nation – obese with debt – is quietly looking for a cheat code.
It’s not going to be austerity. Trump, with his “big, beautiful” spending plans, has no interest in cutting back. Even if government departments miraculously shaved off a trillion dollars annually, that would barely cover the interest on the debt. Fiscal discipline isn’t on the menu. The patient has no intention of dieting – he just wants a miracle drug.
And here’s where things get interesting. The US government may be exploring a new financial weapon: the stablecoin.
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This isn’t the first time unconventional financial tools have been floated. Remember the trillion-dollar platinum coin? The idea was to mint a coin, assign it an absurd value and deposit it with the US Federal Reserve. Technically, it would expand the Treasury’s balance sheet, sidestepping the need for Congress approval to raise the debt ceiling. Critics laughed it off as monetary fan fiction. But what if it wasn’t a joke – just a rough draft?