I think that it’s more than just the debt. Call me an empty-vault conspirasist, but the problem isn’t even the debt. After all, the debt is denominated in dollars, and those can easily, (relatively speaking), be whittled away by simply devaluing the dollar to the current amount of gold in the US depositories.

But therein lies the rub, doesn’t it? If the amount of gold that is supposed to be in there isn’t, (est. @ 8053 tonnes or there abouts), then the debt in dollars does become a big problem. Not only have you announced to the world that the US$ is backed by nothing, it is worth even less. That means that anyone who holds their wealth denominated in dollars is instantly destitute. They become, Lumpenproletariat. (Heavens, I love that word.)