debt ceiling

Even if the debt ceiling showdown ends without default, there will be more shutdown attempts when the federal budget comes up for review in the fall. Get ready for more gridlock – and a US sovereign debt ratings downgrade.

You get the inevitable flip flop

Not raising the debt ceiling will not mean default, instead it will mean other federal spending will get cut

Below is the text from the letter from US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to Congress via Harry S. Reid, Majority Leader of the Senate, informing Reid that the debt ceiling has been breached.

On Friday I spoke to RT America about the mockery of a sham that is US public discourse on the debt ceiling issue. First of all, the US government creates dollars. They can always manufacture more if they so choose. It's a rubbish argument…

Former US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill calls the people advocating brinkmanship on the debt ceiling deficit "terrorists". The United States looks more and more like a banana republic every day. If S&P wants a reason to downgrade the…

A sovereign nation that issues debt in its own fiat currency cannot default involuntarily. Again, this is the Ecuador risk factor, defaulting for purely political reasons, not because of the inability to pay. It is not clear whether there…

The U.S. narrowly avoided a federal government shutdown this past weekend. While President Obama has hailed the compromise which allowed the government to continue to function, it is already clear that more shutdown battles are coming very…

By Marc Chandler Many market observers seem to be exaggerating the role of some Federal Reserve officials, in particular James Bullard, who has mentioned exiting from QE2 before completing the $60 bln of purchases. Plosser, a voting…

I was on the BBC this morning talking about the Obama FY 2012 budget proposal. Here's what I said and what I think about the proposal so far (If I get the video, I will post). This post will be more about the political tactics and…