Provided that the Senate and House follow through on the scenario now on the table, it looks like the game of chicken worked for the Democrats this time. We’re off the hook on default and Government shutdown for now, and Washington village pundits are in full-throated cries of celebration.
Congress is off the hook too. They don’t have to offer any solutions to real, rather than manufactured, problems.
Posted in Joe Firestone
Tagged #PCS, $60 Trillion Coin, asset sales, austerity, consols, debt ceiling, debt limit, debt limit crisis options, debt-subject-to-the-limit, default, deficit spending, grand bargain, great betrayal, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, MMT, modern money theory, President Obama, public debt
This is Part VI of a six part series replying to a claim by the President at his recent White House News Conference. Part I covered the News Conference and the first two (the selective default, and the exploding option) of seven options the President might use to try save the US from defaulting in the face of continued deadlock in the Congress on raising the debt limit or repealing the law enabling it in its entirety. Part II discussed Platinum Coin Seigniorage, invoking the 14th amendment to justify continuing to issue conventional Treasury debt instruments, and consols. Part III discussed premium bonds, and Treasury sales of the Government’s material and cultural assets to the Federal Reserve. Part IV, then evaluated all seven options in light of variations among them in likely degree of legal difficulties they might face, and also the likely impact of each on confidence in the bond markets, if used. Part V then summarized my evaluation of the seven options. This part will end the series by saying first, what the President ought to do, and then by saying what I think he is most likely to do.
Posted in Joe Firestone
Tagged #PCS, $60 Trillion Coin, 14th Amendment, asset sales, austerity, bill black, Bruce McF, consols, debt ceiling, debt limit, debt limit crisis options, debt-subject-to-the-limit, default, deficit spending, grand bargain, great betrayal, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, Jack Lew, MMT, modern money theory, President Obama, public debt
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