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 »
President Obama, fearing losing reelection more than default, threatens to veto any last-minute debt package from Congress unless it extends the nation’s borrowing limit beyond the 2012 elections. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told ABC’s “This Week” that Obama demands that any agreement to increase the debt ceiling extend beyond the 2012 elections. Obama’s chief of staff, Bill Daley, confirmed the veto threat. Daley was asked on NBC’s “Meet the | Read More »
Ok, let’s look at both the politics and the economics of this issue. The underlying politics is as follows: the American people are sick and tired of deficit spending. The pundits are completely wrong when they downplay this issue, because deficits are FAR worse now than they ever have been in peacetime (10+% of GDP). And they got far worse at almost the exact moment | Read More »
While you were watching imported Chinese fireworks yesterday, the Europeans were shooting off some home-grown ones. The euro has been trading down for most of the last 24 hours, as S&P and Fitch announced that they would consider the French-led rollover plan for Greek debt a “selective” default. What’s really going on is that a negotiation is taking place over what should be the credit | Read More »
![[RS]](/t/img/logo-footer.jpg){kind=logo}