Tuesday, June 15, 2010


Learn To Love A U.S. Default
...By now most are familiar with what the experts say is ahead, including, but not limited to, a downgrade of U.S. debt, no more “kindness of strangers” as investors the world over turn their backs on a country lacking any spending discipline, and finally, skyrocketing interest rates as U.S. Treasury yields rise to match their well-earned junk reputation. To believe the experts, the U.S. is Greece, only larger, and the Titanic is nearing the iceberg.

Let’s hope. Indeed, rather than fear what some say is inevitable anyway, it’s time we learn to love the idea of a U.S. default. Contrary to conventional wisdom, government spending itself is our economy’s crisis, while a default would be its cure. ...

...For Americans to worry about a debt default is like the parent of a heroin addict fearing that his dealers will cease feeding the addiction. In truth, just as the much-needed heroin withdrawals would mark the beginning of the addict’s recovery, so would a cessation on the part of investors when it comes to funding federal waste signal a United States on the mend.

The reason is basic. Government spending is the great, economy-sapping tax on the American people. Lacking any resources of its own, when our federal government spends, every dollar it consumes represents money that would have remained in the private sector were Washington more circumspect with the money of others. ...