Ombow, >> forgive the $4 trillion <<
Good question. Rickards would know the answer, though I haven't heard him bring up the topic of debt forgiveness yet. They could probably forgive the treasury bond portion of the $4 tril, but the mortgage securities part is less clear.
I remember during the long QE 1,2,3 process, Lindsey Williams' insider friend (former Big Oil top executive) told him that the Fed would eventually own all the real estate in the country.
One theory bandied about back then was that the Fed had orchestrated the whole subprime mess to accomplish just that, ie they purposely lowered lending standards (low/no doc loans, reverse amortization, etc) knowing it would all blow up and the Fed would end up holding all the mortgages in the country. But, the theory goes, they didn't figure on the entire financial system melting down due to the Derivatives piled on top of the mortgages.
Another even wilder theory was that they planned the Derivatives melt down too, and the resulting tapped out Fed would be the excuse for the IMF to come to the rescue with the SDRs. This isn't as far fetched as it sounds, but the banksters ultimately decided that it wasn't time yet for the transition to the SDRs, so they hunkered down and patched the existing system back together.
Who knows, but the guys at the top of the finance cabal are pure evil. As James Madison said - "History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance".
It's significant that the only time Jesus resorted to violence was when he threw the money changers out of the Temple..
