The federal government could default on its debt as soon as July, a new forecast from the Bipartisan Policy Center warns, raising pressure on Congress for action.
The prominent think tank forecast Monday that the so-called “X-Date” would likely arrive between mid-July and early October.
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No worries, Democrats will vote for whatever the Republicans put together, like selling California to Russia in exchange for Canada and passing an amendment that makes slavery of minorities legal again in the name of bipartisanship and making sure the Republicans won’t get blamed for any default.
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Bring on the collapse of the United States, I will never forgive the idiots who brought this chaos about.
Everyday that passes makes it easier to justify writing out family. Gonna be some hard truths with the family I care about in the near future as various family events are getting planned. But, I don’t hang with fascists, so that’s how it goes.
I get that disrupting family dynamics sucks, but “I don’t hang with fascists” has gotta be like the easiest and most beneficial life rule anyone could ever adopt. My dad’s a piece of shit. I walked away and have never looked back.
I don’t hang with fascists but if any of them want to admit they were wrong I’ll gladly fight alongside repentant former fascists to get my country back. They can’t expect forgiveness from me though, ask God instead.
I’ll forgive them when they earn it through action!
I said it in a comment a while back, my brother didn’t vote, but his rhetoric leading up to and to my understanding even after the election were almost just as bad. I’ve said that at the next election, I’ll determine if we will ever talk again depending on the state of the country and the my loved ones. The only reason he has that chance is because he didn’t vote.
If any of these people decide that they were wrong and truly want to help turn shit around, I’ll accept the help, but that’s where the buck ends. We will never again have a relationship.
One of the best decisions I’ve ever made was cutting contact with the most racist and hateful in my family. It was much easier than I thought, I sleep much better at night. Last I heard, half of my siblings and a few nieces have followed suit. Don’t let their poison hurt you.
We all agree to swap to the metric system after the collapse, right?
So long as we can also codify democracy, outlaw first past the post voting, limit wealth accumulation, make facist conservatism illegal, and, for good measure, move to a parliamentary form of government with representative apportionment.
Can we at least keep smoots?
I mean, how else are we supposed to measure bridges?
It just makes sense
Instructions perfectly clear.
Adopts metric clock and calendar only
Is it good or bad?
It would be very, very bad.
If that happens we might as well do a Communist Revolution and do away with money entirely because at that point the whole system’s fried, literally dysfunctional
Like back to trading bever pelts bad.
Like inevitable nuclear exchange bad.
How so? We have trillions in debt. We always just add more to it.
That’s the point. You can’t add to the debt if no one is willing to lend the money (I mean it’s more complicated, but that’s the essence of it). Borrowing is going to become very expensive for us if no one trusts us to pay our debts, and it will probably trash the bond market which is where anyone nearing or after retirement probably has all of their savings.
Adding further onto your point emphasizing why this will be severe: Borrowing will become more expensive, and we can’t just stop spending to stop borrowing. Much of the current debt is in short term positions that regularly get re-issued. The cost of issuing new short term debts just to replace the current ones coming due will increase even if spending stays the same (or decreases).
And of course, there’s a huge impact to the dollar’s value internationally if major financial markets shift away from holding US debt. You know the trade deficit Republicans like to rage about … Yeah, it’ll get a lot worse when fewer people want to hold US dollars for the purpose of investing in US bonds.
National debt doesn’t work like personal debt. It’s much more complex.
Anyway if all government spending stopped due to a default it would get very very bad. Like you don’t have food to eat bad
Governments incur debt by selling bonds, which guarantee a certain repayment at a certain date. If the government fails to make the bond payments, fewer people will buy bonds in the future. You can’t “just add more” debt if no one is willing to actually lend you money.
Even talking about not making the payments damages the value of future bonds. This kills the dollar.
The really crazy part is that the US is absolutely solvent and capable of paying its debts. There is no good reason for this to even be a point of discussion. Not making the payments only hurts the country.
China would benefit most from the collapsing value of the US dollar.
Beyond basic debt stuff, most of the global financial system uses US Treasury bonds/bills as a base. Argentina can default. But when people talk about a foreign central bank owning “dollars,” they don’t have stacks of hundred dollar bills in a cellar. They have interest-paying treasuries. Probably 99% of countries and major corporations use US treasuries as collateral for loans. Every retiree who can afford it shifts from stocks to bonds because bonds are supposed to be the ultimate safe asset. Contracts between companies often assume U.S. debt instruments are the safest asset.
So, if the U.S. actually defaults, the house of cards comes crashing down and there’s chaos and anarchy. Not the imaginary fun kind of anarchy, either. Most corporations probably fail. (And having Bitcoin on your gaming PC isn’t going to save you when there’s riots and no electricity or internet.)
My guess is that if it really happened, it’d be reversed within hours or they’d mint the trillion dollar coin or do some shenanigans to keep society from collapsing. The U.S. cannot default on debts.
The whole reason MAGA Republicans use the debt ceiling as leverage is because it would cause societal collapse. They’re basically saying, “I don’t give a fuck about the financial system. Cut aid to poor people or we’ll blow it all up.”
But we’ve made every payment on that debt since we started borrowing. If lenders can’t count on those debt payments, they lose some faith in the currency that undergirds the world economy.
This is quite bad, regardless of where you live.
Future borrowing, both public and private, becomes more expensive (higher risk demands higher returns). This is bad if you live in the US.
People involved in international trade start questioning if the USD is really what they want as the reserve currency (the Dollar is the go between for all other currencies, so if you’re in Europe trading with Japan, you exchange euros for dollars for yen, which while a bit cumbersome, is wonderfully predictable) and what they might want to use instead (euros? renminbi? rubles? The chaotic world of direct exchanges of currencies?). This is bad if the country you live in imports goods that you need or exports goods that other people need.
It’d be collapsing-the-entire-US-economy bad, at the very least, which would probably cause a massive disruption across the whole world.
It’s actually difficult to state how bad it would be. People use the United States dollar as a reserve currency because it’s a trusted currency. It generally maintains its value.
It’s in a precarious situation because it’s not backed by anything but the Word of the United States Government. As soon as that government starts to default on loans there’s absolutely nothing propping up the dollar as a reserve currency.
People will start to look for alternatives immediately. Which will absolutely tank the value of the dollar which will lead to more people looking for alternatives which will take the value which will lead to more people looking for alternatives which will tank the value…
Essentially you’re looking at runaway hyperinflation until the value of the dollar reaches somewhere between literally shitting in your hand and a punch directly in the face…
You think the price of eggs are high now? Imagine how high they’re going to be when nobody will accept cash for them, only barter. Literal fucking Pokémon cards are going to be worth more than the dollar very very soon. And the worst part of that statement is it’s barely an exaggeration.
There are so many dollars stored away by countries all over the world primarily because it is a currency accepted nearly everywhere, especially for oil. If this domino falls, the currency will tumble. There are calculations that this would bring the us dollar down to 10 to 15 Euro-cent.
Yes.
I expected this his first term. Let’s see if it happens in round 2.
It’s very unlikely to happen. Republicans don’t want it to happen while Trump is in office. Democrats don’t want it to happen at all; this isn’t like a government shutdown - it would be a catastrophe. The only question is what riders will slip in.
I’m afraid there are American oligarchs who do want it. They could end up owning everything. They don’t care how much people suffer if it consolidates wealth and power for a few.
Cut to
How could the Democrats let this happen?
MAGA bitches.
