Consol bonds

"In 1752, [UK] Prime Minister Henry Pelham converted the entire outstanding stock of British debt into consolidated annuities that would become known as consols. The consols paid interest on an annual basis just like regular bonds, but with no requirement that the government ever redeem them by repaying the face value.

As of Friday, the inflation-adjusted yield on 10-year Treasury bonds was negative 0.56 percent. Savers, in other words, want to pay the American government for the privilege of safeguarding their money. For the longest-dated bonds we sell, the 30-year Treasury bond, rates were 0.51 percent. That’s higher than zero, but far below the long-term average economic growth level. A sensible country would be taking advantage of that fact to finance some valuable public undertakings."
--http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/01/perpetual_bonds_a_clever_way_to_manage_the_national_debt_in_a_time_of_low.html

Comment: This makes sense to me. Let's just admit that government debt will never be repaid.  Although, I would like to see 100 or 200-year bonds as well.

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Here is Gozalo Lira's take on the situation:
"To say that the Federal government should go even further into debt—by way of spending hikes or tax cuts—is downright cynical.

Why is it disingenuous? Why is it cynical? In other words, why do people like me freak out about the amount of debt that the Federal government is floating?

Simple: Because either the fiscal overindebtedness causes interest rates to spike, thereby crashing the country’s economy and bankrupting its government; or it leads to runaway inflation that spirals out of control and into hyperinflation, thereby crashing the country’s economy and bankrupting its government. A garden of forking paths, maybe, but it all leads to the same crummy destination."
--http://gonzalolira.blogspot.com/2013/01/mo-debt-mo-problems-mo-keynesian.html
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I totally agree with Lira, but I don't necessarily see a conflict.  Since interest rates are very low, this would be a good time to borrow.  But what should be money be used for?  First, the same things that wealthy people would invest in - gold, silver, land in Brazil, stock in blue chip companies, etc.  Second, mega-projects, such as a Gibraltar strait tunnel, Keystone pipeline, etc.  Third, basic research on nuclear energy such as Thorium, and recycling nuclear waste instead of burying it.

But to just to continue to finance trillion-dollar government deficits is insane. And I totally agree with the bolded portion above that our choices are either to 1) see interest rates spike, or 2) to see hyperinflation.