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Lew to Congress: US hits debt limit on March 16, needs to be raised ASAP

Posted by $ Your_Name_Goes_Here 9 years, 2 months ago to Economics
38 comments | Share | Flag

If we ran our households like the Federal Government, we'd have some REAL issues...

All Comments

  • Posted by MinorLiberator 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    No, you pretty much have it down, no apology necessary. One thing that may be unique to the U.S., although there could be other countries, is the idea of a limit at all. I would guess that in the long history of inflationism as a policy (and let's face it, that's what this is. As far as I'm concerned QE and QE2 are still nice ocean liners) has rarely had a vocal minority. At least we have that, and therefore a pretense of a limit. Small consolation right now, I know, but to the poster who asked if our kids and grandkids would understand what was done to them, they can look at our ideas and know there was opposition, and why.
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  • Posted by MinorLiberator 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I fully agree. Not within my lifetime, but not that long before, the British Pound was the "world currency". Now it's the "almighty dollar", and that will also end, sooner rather than later. Sound economics tells us that it will happen, but not when. Strictly on topic, I also fully agree that the "debt ceiling" is a semantic gimmick. If you keep raising a limit, then as others have said, it's not really a limit, is it? The only question is the amount of phony bluster we'll have to endure before the limit is raised, but it WILL be raised.
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  • Posted by johnpe1 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    yeah -- here I sit in my man-cave, typing on my
    stone keyboard with calloused hands....... -- j

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  • Posted by sumitch 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    We could start with cutting Obama phones. Then eliminate food stamps and go back to the old commodities where you get a sack of beans, some cheese, some flower, some pasta and a few other such. But no dog food, no beer, no steaks, no candy.
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  • Posted by SaltyDog 9 years, 2 months ago
    Milton Friedman once famously observed that, "If you put the Federal Government in charge of the Sahara Desert in five years there'd be a shortage of sand."

    Like most good jokes, it's not really a joke at all.
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  • Posted by plusaf 9 years, 2 months ago
    Oh, come on... none of you have linked to this one?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li0no7O9...

    Oh, and btw... where's that graph of mine that shows the US Debt Limit versus Actual Debt... and how many times the DL has been raised?

    When the DL gets raised well over a hundred times and ALWAYS gets raised to just above the next 'limit' needed... well, it's pretty obvious that Having Such A Limit is somewhere between hypocritical and just plain stupid...

    ah, there it is... one of my earliest home page pix... http://www.plusaf.com/pix/homepagepix/pr...
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  • Posted by $ jdg 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    There may be no end to politicians' willingness to borrow, but both the willingness and the ability of anyone to lend them the money will eventually run out.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 9 years, 2 months ago
    If the plumbing breaks and the house fills up with waste water, don't fix it -- buy another house!
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 2 months ago
    Ahh yes the; cycle of repression starts again. the USA has no debt limit. Bunk and. Hoakum. Just like the myth of the balanced budget with a surplus, Neither do they shut down the government. So now we start the cycle again in financial terms it's unlimited borrowing with no intention of repaying, massive overspending, with printing press money, inflation, deflation and debt repudiation. Used to be the mantra stated not to worry that won't come true until ten or so generations down the line. Now it's Grandpa and Grandma having to seek work at Walmart to make ends meet. But if you can fool just enough of the people just enough of the time then you too qualify to be a congressional.
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  • Posted by Lnxjenn 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Well remember what Obama said: Increasing the Debt limit doesn't increase the Debt. It means Congress has got to pay their bills.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 2 months ago
    "Failing to increase the debt limit would have catastrophic economic consequences." http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/Page...
    [Sarcasm]We'd better do it then.[/Sarcasm]

    I wish a coalition of lawmakers would insist on keeping the limit where it is, perpahaps indexed to CPI, and then stick to it. We could do cuts or tax increases, but they would not allow us to exceed the limit. There's something terribly wrong when we feel like stopping going deeper into debt would cause a crisis.
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  • Posted by wiggys 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    the laffer curve in spelled incorrectly it should be laugher. I would like to own the company in conn that supplies the paper to them.
    what makes you think or believe that anyone we employ such as the pres cares how big the nations debt grows too. trust me there is no end.
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  • Posted by sumitch 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    They tell us it won't cause any more spending.
    Then they tell us it must be raised to accommodate commitments they have already made.
    Isn’t that spending?
    It's like a hula hoop. There ain't no end to it.
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  • Posted by $ jdg 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    To really complete the analogy -- then you get to pay them off in Monopoly money.
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