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Posts Tagged ‘Debt Limit’

Spain’s 1575 Default

Posted in Budget, History, International, tagged , , , , on August 1, 2011 | 1 Comment »

If all goes according to plan, the hoopla over the debt limit will soon recede. Policymakers and analysts will move on to the next new thing. And, sadly, some fascinating questions will forever go unanswered. For example, which president would appear on the trillion-dollar coin?  But if you are up for one last article about default, yesterday’s piece by [...]

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Debt Limit: Routine or the End of the World?

Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged , , , on July 29, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Well, it certainly isn’t routine this time. Life was much simpler on the West Wing: This is a repost from May.

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Raise the Debt Ceiling Rap

Posted in Budget, Macroeconomics, tagged , , , , , on July 26, 2011 | 2 Comments »

Today’s humor break: Remy does the Debt Ceiling Rap (with some asides about monetary policy): Best line: “I got a monetary plan, and it involves a lot of toner.”

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Let’s Eliminate the Debt Limit

Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged , , on July 18, 2011 | 10 Comments »

My latest column at the Christian Science Monitor: America’s leaders need to get to yes on a budget deal – one that marries substantial deficit cuts with a much-needed increase in the debt limit. But that’s not enough. Rather than merely increasing the debt limit, we should eliminate it. I realize that sounds strange. With [...]

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Spending in Disguise

Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged , , , on June 29, 2011 | 3 Comments »

Republicans are demanding a deficit-reduction package that’s entirely spending cuts. Democrats insist that revenues must also be included. Are these positions completely irreconcilable? Not if both sides are willing to attack the spending hidden in our tax code. I explore this idea for finding common ground in a new essay in National Affairs, “Spending in [...]

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Playing with Fire with the Debt Limit

Posted in Budget, Finance, Politics, tagged , , , , on June 24, 2011 | 4 Comments »

My latest column in the Christian Science Monitor: America sometimes takes its exceptionalism too far. Case in point: We are the only major economy that talks openly of default. Government debt has ballooned throughout the developed world in the aftermath of the Great Recession. France and Britain are as deep in debt as the United States, [...]

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The Day the United States Defaulted on Treasury Bills

Posted in Budget, tagged , , , , on May 26, 2011 | 35 Comments »

Since the day of Alexander Hamilton, the United States has never defaulted on the federal debt. That’s what we budget-watchers always say. It’s a great talking point. One that helps bolster the argument that default should not be an option in Washington’s ongoing debt limit slowdown. There’s just one teensy problem: it isn’t true. As [...]

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