So, pick your poison from the first three: grinding belt-tightening, hyperinflation, or default.
How about all three?
One thing the article did not mention is the American Middle-class is being squeezed and squeezed more and more. Getting access to the middle class is becoming harder and harder. Our largest economy in the world may just sputter out as more and more people are living paycheck to paycheck and these are not your poor, but the middle class.