and as a 2016 candidate publicly mused that the US could default,
Not that is something I want to see. Not as close as I will unfortunately be, but if you want to shake up the global finance and business world, that is the Mother Of All Bombs!
If interest rates are negative, it's hard to default by missing an interest payment.
Also, if you issue a 30 year Treasury Bill now that has no hope of being eventually repaid, the problem of refinancing it is for 4 to 8 presidents hence to solve.
The current administration is betting that Keynesian economics still works - that in the long run everyone is dead.
Keynesian is not "printing as much as you want".
And if you are talking about MMT, it is "the government can "print money" as much as the economy has empty capacities without resulting in inflation."
While this is mathematically right, which is why I like it, I think the human factor would make this (if constantly used) break too, as "the economy" would expect it too much and up production capacity. THAT (if anywhere) is the part where it leads to inflation, since it gets harder and harder to stop the "money printing".
Nothing is harden than the retreat from an unwinnable battle. ;)
But strange that people always forget that
private banks practically pring as much money as they want. Always. The government only plays the minor role in that business, so why is nobody talking about the banks?