We Haven't Reached This Point Yet

Christopher Mckay's The Breakdown of the Roman Republic (2009), p. 274 describing how bribes to get voters to cast their ballots for particular officials reached an absurd level in the last years before the Roman Republic finally collapsed:

In addition, the loans taken out by various candidates for electoral bribery were so great that interest rates doubled....

Although perhaps we may see something analogous in the 2012 elections, where Obama is attempting raise one billion dollars for his re-election campaign--and the Republicans now realize that there is no point in accepting public funds, and be limited to the chump change that McCain had available to him in 2008--so at least a billion dollars for the Republican campaign.  Talk about something that will cause inflationary pressure!