Debt has to be the single greatest threat to the empire at this point.

You can pay it down with hard assets like gold (lol) or you can fire up the presses and devalue the currency.

That will spur unrest and unexpected consequences for years to come unless some black swan reset like WWII comes along.

I know, I know, Tellafriend. At this point a World War doesn’t technically qualify as a black swan anymore - it was the only example I could think of atm.