> As in There where US treasury bonds issued at 17%

That has much more to do with large-scale experimentation than exogenous factors.

> At current interst rates our debt is sustainable but bump that to 10+% for to long and it would distroy our economy.

Without a peg/convertibility the central bank will always have the last say on bond rates[1].

[1] http://www.cfeps.org/pubs/wp-pdf/WP53-Fullwiler.pdf