Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If push comes to shove and we (the US) devalue our currency [..] Against what, and by what means? (Perhaps naively) I'd always assumed the markets decide the exchange rates of (most) Western currencies against each other. Obviously with a dollop of central bank intervention here and there(!)
At the crudest level, what do you suppose would happen if the U.S. Treasury/Federal Reserve suddenly decide that every dollar-denominated account of $n got a "stimulus payment" of $2n?
You mean a bit like this
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=KT86
but overnight, rather than over several years?