If I were granted one wish about the state of today’s politics it would be for the Democrats to be saddled with their own version of John McCain. Once again, McCain is working to score points for Democrats and undermine Cruz/Paul and Lee – the “Wacko Birds” – in their attempt to prevent a free debt ceiling increase. Back in January, Republicans and conservatives got | Read More »
There is nothing more odious in a free society than politicians using the boot of government to make the most basic goods and services unaffordable for the majority of the country, thereby engendering a need for subsidization. In one fell swoop, representatives who deviate from the Constitution have the ability to destroy the self-respect and quality of life for all but the top 1% – | Read More »
Do you want to know why the Ryan budget is a waste of time? Worse, do you want to know why the entire House majority is a waste of time? Look no further than John Boehner’s comments to Sean Hannity regarding fighting Obamacare in the debt ceiling: “There will be opportunities ahead, but do you want to risk the full faith and credit of the | Read More »
We should fight on the debt ceiling, but we are not going to. Frankly, I think Pat Toomey’s push for a “full faith and credit” act has hurt us. It has provided the Democrats an opportunity to spin the media that even the Republicans acknowledge we’ll default if we don’t raise the ceiling, which is why Toomey is doing that. It was too clever by | Read More »
Republicans came into their annual retreat at Williamsburg, Virginia looking for a starting point in the upcoming debt and budget battles. It appears that they have emerged from the retreat with a full blown plan. They will pass a bill this week that will suspend the debt ceiling law until May 18. The debt limit increase will be tied to a requirement that the Senate | Read More »
On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the debt ceiling, Manti Te’o, and how hackers can mine your personal information.
Read More »
Bend over Republicans, here they come again. Phil Klein is out with a column that I can only assume comes from House Republican Leadership talking points. I can only assume that because House Republican leaders and those close to them have been whispering about this scenario for about a month now to as many Republican strategists, pundits, and others as would listen. They want to | Read More »
Once upon a time, liberals were somewhat principled in their pursuit of a utopian dirigisme. Sure, they always liked to play a bit of class warfare, but they fundamentally believed in taxing everyone. After all, if you want a cradle-to-grave government-run society, it’s got to be purveyed by the broad populace. There simply aren’t enough rich people to raise the requisite funds for a rapacious | Read More »
It kind of makes me sick when the deadbeat wears Prada. Such is the case with Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez. Argentina overwhelmingly voted her in as President and she immediately borrowed vast sums of money. This influx of cash jet-fueled an economic bubble which predictably popped. Then the bills came due for all the money she had borrowed during Argentina’s economic boom.
Rather than paying the piper and facing the obdurate, double-plus unfunny task of cleaning up after her socialism party, Fernandez made like a good Marxist and socialized some of the losses from her own economic mismanagement. Anyone dumb enough to buy Argentinean bonds got stiffed like a co-star in an old Harry Reams film. Argentina defaulted on its debt payments and referred to some of the hedge funds which hold the now worthless Argentinean paper as “vulture funds” because they refused to take a haircut and attempted to make Argentina’s government answer for their behavior in court.
Read More »
I am in favor of not raising the debt ceiling unless the President and Democrats come up with meaningful spending cuts and reforms. Contrary to a lot of the Democrats’ spin, the federal government will not default if the debt ceiling is not raised. Only if Little Timmy Geithner decides to not pay certain debts will the government default. It is his choice. But I | Read More »
During the fight over the FY 2011 budget in 2011, conservatives were told to stand down and wait for the debt ceiling. At that point, “we would begin to cut trillions,” promised GOP leaders. They wound up caving on the debt ceiling in return for nothing. Then they said we would fight for the FY 2012 budget. Well, once we agreed to lock in the | Read More »
What a difference a year makes when it comes to the attitude of Republicans regarding the debt ceiling. In 2011, Republican leaders spent the incipient months of the debt ceiling fight publicly stating that they would ultimately raise the debt ceiling. They cloddishly communicated to the Democrats the reality that they would never engage in brinkmanship by declining to raise the debt ceiling after Tim | Read More »
On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the minting of a trillion dollar coin as a potential work around of the debt limit debate, what impacts it would have on the market and if this super-coin could work in a Coke machine.
Read More »
First of all, I hope so. But have they boxed themselves in? Consider that the fiscal cliff deal is playing badly with lots of folks, not just partisan Republicans and partisan Democrats. Congress playing brinksmanship with nothing to show for it really is aggravating the American public. If both sides are going to play at brinksmanship, at some point the base of the parties and | Read More »
It feels like yesterday when John Boehner was bragging how he got 98% of what he desired from the deal negotiated to raise the debt ceiling in August 2011. Yet just 17 months after Obama was granted a $2.1 trillion debt limit increase to preserve his reelection, we have breached the new ceiling. In just 519 days, we’ve burned through $2.1 trillion in debt, for | Read More »
![[RS]](/t/img/logo-footer.jpg){kind=logo}