That comment — that the U.S. can simply pay back its trillions of dollars in debt by printing a ton more money — drove Wall Street crazy again and prompted a conference call from top Democrats to rip Trump as completely unglued on the economy.

Trump is not exactly wrong on either front. The U.S. can and does buy back existing debt and replace it with cheaper debt. But Trump’s initial comments certainly sounded more like negotiating with creditors, as one does in a bankruptcy proceeding, to accept less than they are owed, something Wall Street associates with places like Puerto Rico, Argentina and Greece and not with the United States of America, which has a triple-A credit rating and maintains the world’s reserve currency.

And the Federal Reserve can and does “print” money in massive amounts and can do so in ways that make existing debt burdens — both for individuals and the government — less onerous. But presidents, Treasury secretaries and Federal Reserve chairs would never go out and say they plan to create inflation to deal with the debt.

To do so could dramatically change the way investors view the U.S. and cause rates to skyrocket. And other nations that have tried to inflate their way out of debt have often failed spectacularly.