US Action News

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned that the debt ceiling must be raised by October 17th, but do you know what happens after that? Most people don’t. That’s Bankrupting America put together a Debt Ceiling Briefing Book to answer questions surrounding the current fiscal debate.

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. .. Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.” — Barack Obama – More …

The loss of income from the redemptions comes to a cool $3.3Bn a year. That is chump change at SSA – but it will happen again next June when another chunk of high coupon paper rolls off the books. – Bruce Krasting

“The budget blueprint [Obama] sent us last year was so roundly ridiculed for its fiscal gimmickry and its massive tax hikes that, when it came to a vote in the Senate, his own party joined Republicans in voting it down 99 to 0.

This was entirely a political crisis — not an economic or even fiscal one. – IBD

The average 7th grader likely understands that he cannot spend more money than he has for years on end. The average economist does not.

Should interest rates rise to the long-term average, interest on the national debt would more than double from the 2011 figure of $454 billion dollars.

Economic downshift in China has generated a long rippling effect on many countries and corporations around the world. .. CBO report estimates that the U.S. public debt could reach 200% GDP in 25 years if current tax and spending policies are extended.

It’s a crisis that Geithner doesn’t think there is a debt crisis. “Do people back home fully understand what I just explained? That the Democrats in Washington that control the senate have not offered a budget in three and a half years, almost four years now. This government has spent close to $10 TRILLION dollars since the the budget was last passed by them”

Nouriel Roubini who is famous for predicting the financial collapse which earned him the nickname “Dr. Doom” cited a Middle East conflagration oil crisis, “austerity fatigue” and “bailout fatigue” in Europe, and the “fiscal cliff” faced by the U.S. in a doom and gloom scenario.