phuqueue wrote:I think you're not fully appreciating the gravity of the US defaulting on its sovereign debt obligations if you think it might be just as bad if people who listen to right wing radio sell off all their stocks.
But the options aren't "print a trillion dollar coin" and "default on debt." I would never ever recommend that defaulting on our debt is better than whatever other options we may have. It may not be appetizing, but we can continue to raise the debt ceiling incrementally over the next few years. That is absolutely an option. There are a lot of options. In my mind, we should avoid the ones that could sink us back into recession or even depression (including all-out austerity). At this point in time, we should seek the option that causes the fewest amount of people to freak out, and unfortunately, math, science, and reality are not the stabilizing factors that we all wish them to be. I'd be much more in favor of the President trying to take debt ceiling power back than I would the trillion dollar coin, but he would probably ruin his chances at passing anything at all in the next two years (probably four years). As difficult as the right has been to work with, I still think he will accomplish more by finding small cuts to offer up along the way as compromise. Painting the right as obstructionists has not worked because the tea party wears that like a badge of honor.
phuqueue wrote:I think you're not fully appreciating the gravity of the US defaulting on its sovereign debt obligations if you think it might be just as bad if people who listen to right wing radio sell off all their stocks.
But the options aren't "print a trillion dollar coin" and "default on debt." I would never ever recommend that defaulting on our debt is better than whatever other options we may have.
Those were precisely the options when you said you thought it would lead to "a huge panicky selloff of stocks by Rush, Paul, and O'Reilly folks which could do more damage to the economy than the good paying our bills would do." Sounds like maybe that's not exactly what you actually meant though and I'm more or less on board with most of the rest of your post.
phuqueue wrote:I think you're not fully appreciating the gravity of the US defaulting on its sovereign debt obligations if you think it might be just as bad if people who listen to right wing radio sell off all their stocks.
But the options aren't "print a trillion dollar coin" and "default on debt." I would never ever recommend that defaulting on our debt is better than whatever other options we may have.
Those were precisely the options when you said you thought it would lead to "a huge panicky selloff of stocks by Rush, Paul, and O'Reilly folks which could do more damage to the economy than the good paying our bills would do." Sounds like maybe that's not exactly what you actually meant though and I'm more or less on board with most of the rest of your post.
I meant that a selloff could be the result of the creation of a trillion dollar coin. The selloff would likely be better than the debt default, but it is less satisfactory than other things that are still possible. The current options (not outcomes) include much more than "create a trillion dollar coin" or "default on debt."
