News
National Journal | House GOP Seeing Sequester, Not Debt Ceiling, As Fight to Pick
Republicans appear to be willing to avoid a showdown over the debt limit and instead use the sequester as their main negotiating lever in upcoming fiscal fights with the White House and Senate Democrats.
CNN Money | Debt ceiling stop-gap: GOP would pay some bills over others
With the way forward on the debt ceiling still murky, a Republican proposal to be unveiled next week seeks to protect payments of three groups over everyone else: bond investors, seniors and military troops.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Forbes | Debt-Ceiling Gimmickry Is Unbecoming A Rational Government
Congressional Republicans again are threatening to not raise the legislatively-imposed U.S. public debt ceiling (currently $16.4 trillion), just as they did back in August 2011, when they caused S&P to downgrade U.S. debt from its triple-A status for the first time.
Reuters | Analysis - Preparing for the unthinkable: Could markets handle a U.S. default?
Squabbling in Washington over the debt ceiling is again raising the spectre that the United States may be forced to delay payments on its debt. While the stigma of a default would be damaging enough to investor sentiment, the chaos from a breakdown in financial markets' systems that might result would be even scarier.
Real Clear Markets | To Solve the Debt Ceiling, We Must Solve the Dollar
Both sides of the political aisle keep talking about the debt ceiling showdown in the context of financial Armageddon.
Blogs
WSJ | Paulson: U.S. Government Faces ‘Debt Bomb,’ Needs Presidential Leadership
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Thursday that the U.S. government faces a “debt bomb” that can only be confronted if political leaders make changes to entitlement programs like Medicare, adding that otherwise a crisis would be so predictable “it’s like flying into a cliff – you can just see it.”
