More talk about the debt ceiling and the scenarios that could play out if a deal is struck or not....now I don't know about anyone else, but this talk about the debt ceiling is really pathetic, reason being is everyone knows they are going to raise it by a couple of trillion..the constant articles that come out on this is completely overwhelming... between this nonsense and the the bailouts in Greece everyone continues to believe the answer to all of these problems is more money and easy bailouts! So over the next few weeks the debt ceiling WILL be raised by $1-$2 trillion and Greece bailouts will continue. US Debt Talks Hit a Critical StageâWhat Now? Reuters | June 28, 2011 | 04:28 PM EDT Budget talks to win an urgently needed increase in U.S. government borrowing authority have entered a critical stage, with President Barack Obama now leading negotiations with Republican lawmakers. Here are some possible scenarios for how a debt limit deal might or might not be passed by Congress before Aug. 2, when the Treasury Department says it will run out of ways to service government debt without an increase in the borrowing cap. Scenario #1: Deficit Deal Struck in Early July The focus of the Obama-led talks is to get a package to slash the long-term deficit. If substantial savings can be identified â up to $2.5 trillion over 10 years â then enough Republicans will probably agree to a corresponding raise in the $14.3 trillion borrowing cap. A roughly $2.4 trillion boost in the debt limit will allow the United States to meet its obligations beyond the November 2012 presidential election. Any deal needs to allow enough time for Democrats and Republicans to sell it to rank-and-file members and then get a vote through both the Republican-controlled House and the Senate, where Democrats have a majority, before Aug. 2. The best outcome, in terms of keeping markets calm and reassuring investors, would be for Obama and House Speaker John Boehner to reach a deal early in July. Yet this appears increasingly unlikely, for both sides appear to be digging their heels in. The White House says any deal must include additional revenues but Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, has flatly rejected the idea. In deficit-reduction talks led by Vice President Joe Biden, the two Republicans in the negotiations â Representative Eric Cantor and Senator John Kyl â rejected the idea of closing tax loopholes as a way to raise revenue, including tax breaks to big oil companies and the owners of corporate jets. The talks collapsed last week after they walked out over the tax issue. Scenario #2: Deal Struck at Eleventh Hour Given how the stalemate, there is a strong likelihood that talks will drag on through July. A last-minute vote in Congress to avert a U.S. default â similar to the late-night compromise that avoided a government shutdown in April â now appears to be likely. What a final deal would look like is unclear. At the very least, the White House and Democrats may have to give substantial ground on Medicare, agreeing to significant cuts in the government-run program for the elderly, a key Republican demand. In return, Republicans could agree to revenue-increasing steps such as limits on mortgage reduction relief for the wealthy and the repealing of an ethanol blenders credit. That could help get the Democratic votes needed to pass the debt ceiling increase. Some Republican lawmakers also appear open to bigger cuts in defense spending, especially as a way to avoid tax hikes. But a last-minute deal carries substantial dangers. Three credit-rating agencies â Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch â have warned that they could strip the U.S. dollar of its coveted top-notch triple-A credit rating if Congress fails to raise the borrowing cap by Aug. 2. Moody's warned that if substantial progress on a debt deal is not made by mid-July, it expected to place the U.S. government's rating under review for a possible downgrade. Although markets continue to remain calm, with yields on U.S. Treasury bonds very low, the credit-default swap market is already reflecting the growing uncertainty. CDS contracts on U.S. debt â insurance policies on the risk of default â have risen substantially in recent weeks. "After July 4, if there is no progress, investors will start growing increasingly anxious," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, told Reuters. Scenario #3: Short-Term Debt Limit Rise With the White House and Republicans far apart on the issue of taxes, and with just over a month until the Aug. 2 deadline, some lawmakers believe a short-term deal to raise the borrowing cap by just a few months is becoming a serious option. Such a deal would probably include spending cuts identified in the Biden talks with a commensurate debt ceiling rise until, perhaps, the beginning of 2012. The U.S. Treasury burns through $125 billion in credit each month. Dick Durbin, a leading Senate Democrat, and McConnell have both raised the possibility of a short-term boost. But they have received swift rebukes from their own parties. Conservative Republicans, especially in the House, are loathe to cast multiple votes on increasing the U.S. debt ceiling. Both parties recognize that revisiting the controversial issue in the midst of next year's election campaign could play badly with voters already deeply worried about the sputtering economy and high unemployment rate. Markets will likely react badly to a short-term increase. "The muddle-through notion ... requires another decision later to kick the can down the road, and then you don't know how it'll get kicked the next time," said Adnan Akant, head of foreign exchange at Fischer Francis Trees & Watts in New York. "So it brings fear that the next time it'll get kicked worse." Scenario #4: Miss Aug. 2 Deadline by a Few Days There is the possibility that the debt limit will be raised several days after the Aug. 2 deadline. This could happen if talks drag on past July or an eleventh-hour debt ceiling vote initially fails. Lawmakers will be mindful of what happened when the House initially failed to pass the Bush administration's bailout of the financial sector in September 2008 â stocks plunged nearly 800 points in response and a chastened House approved the bailout a few days later. Moody's has said that a ratings downgrade would likely occur "shortly after" a debt ceiling default, indicating that if a deal looks to be within reach when the Aug. 2 deadline is passed, then Congress has a few days' grace to boost the borrowing cap before a downgrade. But it is unlikely that the markets will remain calm in the event that the deadline is missed, even for a few days. Having had months to reach a deal â U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner began issuing warnings to Congress about the debt limit in January â a missed deadline will signal that the White House and Congress are not capable of solving the country's long-term deficit problems, rattling investors and major creditors, such as China. Scenario #5: Talks Fail, U.S. Defaults Geithner and Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, have repeatedly warned that failure to raise the debt limit will have "catastrophic" repercussions for the U.S. and global economy. A default will likely lead to market panic, a devastating spike in interest rates, lack of credit, a plunging U.S. dollar and another, potentially more severe, recession, with repercussions for the global economy. Geithner insists there is no "Plan B" if the U.S. begins to default and that he cannot prioritize payments with funds available. Analysts say that in the event of a default, the U.S. Treasury will have no option but to pay interest on the debt first, so that no payments to creditors are missed. The Treasury will then have to decide who to pay next, and how much. About $23 billion in Social Security checks are due to be paid on Aug. 3. Geithner will also have to decide in what order the services Medicare and Medicaid obligations, and paychecks for U.S. troops. John Koskinen, the White House budget official who had to formulate a payment plan during two government shutdowns in 1995 â but never had to deal with a default â said there is no option but to prioritize. If the federal government defaults, Koskinen said, you have to pay "the debt, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and defense. You need to pay as many people as possible who are expecting payment â and they are the key programs." "But once you have made those, you are already in the hole. You have to start looking at beginning to shut everything else down. Whatever you do, it would probably be the biggest financial challenge the government has had in its history."
Appears Dems are revisiting a solution to the debt crisis that rests on a simple proposition: The debt ceiling itself is unconstitutional. "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law... shall not be questioned," reads the 14th Amendment. Obama simply ignores the debt ceiling asserting all debts and obligations will be paid per the constitution, treasury turns the printing presses on and congress may spend away without limits. Dollar is diluted and devalued... essentially monopoly money created and printed to pay debt. Be interesting to see how the bond market reacts. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...ling-unconstitutional-democrats_n_886442.html
read this; "CDS contracts on U.S. debt â insurance policies on the risk of default â have risen substantially in recent weeks." So where can I track the price on these insurance policies? Any links? charts?
This is all such crap. Totally political on both sides. The only way the republicans can block the increase in the debt ceiling is if they get a near solid party line vote in the House. I doubt that happens, unless the democrats insist on tax increases. Boehner is looking over his shoulder at Michelle Bachmann and will pretend to play hardball, but at the end of the day, he is a typical country club republican and will fold. Republicans will agree to significant defense cuts, which make a lot of sense in any case. of course, the cuts in entitlements will prove illusory and will never take effect. If the republicans want to lose both the House and the presidency, then I suggest they take the advice in the article and cut the mortgage interest deduction. This will be a tax increase any way you slice it. I don't care if it is on millionaires' second homes, it is still a tax increase and totally unacceptable. A default on T-bonds would be preferable.
T-bond default is inevitable, the question is when. Don't underestimate the two liars, Bernanke and Geithner, to keep the scam going a little while longer.
Even the IMF is telling the US to "hike" the debt limit!!! Wow this is a fucked up situation, so keep raising the debt ceiling and the US should start announcing cuts when??? 100% gross debt compared to GDP. So lets continue to raise the debt ceiling and continue to spend money the US doesn't have. There is no solution and spending cuts aren't coming anytime soon, if they were really involved in getting this situation going spending cuts would have been in place years ago. IMF says U.S. should hike debt limit to avert global shock By Glenn Somerville WASHINGTON | Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:22am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Failure by U.S. lawmakers to agree soon on a deal to raise the government's borrowing limit could deliver a "severe shock" to a still fragile recovery and global markets, the International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday. In an annual review of U.S. economic conditions, the IMF said the key challenge the country faces is finding a way to stabilize its debts by mid-decade without derailing growth, which is likely to remain modest for some time. "And of course, the federal debt ceiling should be raised expeditiously to avoid a severe shock to the economy and world financial markets," the IMF said in a statement. The U.S. Treasury already has hit the existing $14.3 trillion legal limit on the nation's debt and has warned the debt ceiling needs to be raised by August 2 to avoid a default on the nation's obligations. The IMF said a failure to raise the ceiling in time could lead to a downgrade in the United States' coveted AAA debt rating and send interest rates soaring. "These risks would also have significant global repercussions, given the central role of U.S. Treasury bonds in world financial markets," it said. The Obama administration and Congress are locked in tense negotiations to try to reach a deal on budget cuts that would give lawmakers political cover to raise the debt ceiling. The IMF said the goal should be to stabilize the nation's debt ratio -- which it said now was unsustainable -- by mid-decade and gradually ratchet it down after that. "We see early political agreement on a comprehensive medium-term consolidation plan based on realistic macroeconomic assumptions as a cornerstone of a credible and cyclically appropriate fiscal adjustment strategy," the IMF said. It said the Federal Reserve's policy of keeping interest rates near zero likely will be appropriate for some time in view of modest U.S. growth prospects. But it added the U.S. central bank must also be ready to "respond decisively" if inflation expectations appear likely to become unhinged.
Yes indeed, its already in the works.... You are talking about Bubble ben bernanke here! This guy only knows how to spend and create bubbles, asset bubbles are growing once again!