Mitch Daniels: ‘The Day the Dollar Died’ is coming. What’s the plan?

Mitch Daniels is the president emeritus of Purdue University, a former governor of Indiana, a former director of the Office of Management and Budget, and a co-Chair of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. He recently wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post, an excerpt of which is below.

Sunday marks the end of summer, and with it the closing of another Deep Thinking Season. In delightful venues from Aspen to Sun Valley to Chautauqua, the sophisticated class once again gathered to contemplate the great issues of the day. Lectures were delivered, slideshows unlimbered and chins rubbed sagely over topics like the downward spiral of world order, the promise and peril of AI, semiconductors and national security, etc. And of course climate, climate, climate.

Here’s a proposal for next summer’s program organizers: a conference devoted to preparing a plan for the collapse of the U.S. public debt market and the dollar’s world reserve status — and the economic and social consequences of such an event. With debts already about to surpass the nation’s entire GDP, and adding close to $2 trillion more this year, only a dwindling number of denialists doubt that a cataclysmic reckoning, including double-digit damage to Americans’ income growth, lies ahead. It’s past time to prepare.

Read the entire piece here.

Published works by members or staff of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget do not necessarily reflect the views of all members or staff of the Committee.