Kerby Anderson

Chuck Bentley is the CEO of Crown Financial and the host of the daily radio broadcast, My MoneyLife. He was on my radio program last week to talk about this question he received from a listener: “I am really concerned with what Elon Musk said about America heading toward bankruptcy. Do you think there is anything we need to do if he turns out to be correct?”

Elon Musk has said this on a recent All-In Summit hosted by the All-In Podcast: “America is going bankrupt extremely quickly, and everyone seems to be sort of whistling past the graveyard on this one.”

Chuck Bentley attributes much of the problem to the promotion and popularity of what is called “modern monetary theory.” The economists and politicians believe our currency is like Monopoly Money. They argue that we can ignore deficits and ignore the growing national debt since the government will always be able to print enough money to pay its debts. But he warns we are headed for a downward debt loop.

During the program, I explained that we aren’t the only people concerned about this. Chuck Bentley quotes from an article by Les Rubin who admitted: “The government CAN pay their loans due to their unlimited ability to borrow—for now—or print more money, as long as other countries and investors will continue to buy our bonds.” But in the article, he then warned that it will eventually stop and “we will have to default, leading to severe consequences.”

Both Chuck Bentley and I concluded that if Elon Musk and the proposed Government Efficiency Commission cannot reduce spending, then the economic future for this country isn’t very bright.