US debt default

Its hard to believe things could get much worse,the first time EVER the US the richest country in the world will default on its debts.

Who fault is it? TBH I don't care really,all I know is its a pretty uncertain time and every country in the world is watching this space and hoping things work out,if the US goes down we go down.

2nd of August is the deadline in two days,either the debt ceiling will be raised or the US will default.

Neither option seems very appealing,grim times.

 

The country isn't rich, a limited few people in it are. We are all to blame, in part anyway.
The US needed to loans from the very beginning, and have been selling bits and pieces (bonds, etc) ever since. The people of all economic and social status want more than the country can offer.

 

I saw a one liner this week-

Put the US Congress on minimum wage for only one week and within that week the impasse will be solved.

 

Thats one thing I always told people and believed. Let the people that make a lot/enough/gov down to what we get paid.. and then you'll see them wanting real change

 

Oh man, don't get me started on this schoolyard fight! Blithering idiots may have already screwed their AAA rating. It'll screw us too as our dollar gets more expensive again and %90 of our exports go there. I'm out as I'll most likely be banned if I continue to say what I really feel.

 

This really is uncharted territory as no one knows what will happen if no agreement is reached by Tuesday.

We have a similar situation here in Belgium where we have been without a government for over a year.
No single party has a control so they are having to form a coalition but the parties involved can not agree about how to repay our debt ( the country is almost bankrupt)

If all the politicians had their salary cheques stopped until they reached a consensus i am sure it would be rapidly resolved. (it would work for the US as well)

 

While being a US citizen, I agree with all the above posts, especially auggie's. Most countries lack a balanced budget! Most states in the US don't have one and this bothers me a great deal. Don't spend more than you make was something that I learned as a child. Seems that government hasn't caught on to that one yet!

 

Aw, it's not that big of a deal. Apparently, two coins could fix it.

http://gawker.com/5825983/the-trillion-dollar-coins-that-could-save-america

 

What is most disturbing to me is that some people unwittingly voted for this last November.
Some of the key players don't understand the consequences of these actions and I fear that this is producing a stain that can never be removed.

 

The 2 parties are so far apart what ideology is concerned that compromise is hardly possible unless 1 has a majority in both Congress and Senate. This is particularly true since 2008. The word compromise has become a dirty word. Just IMHO

 

I totally agree with TimW!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Why do they call it a 'debt ceiling', if every time they approach it, they raise the limit? Wish I could do that when my cash was low! :-D

Not much I can say about it and not be too political, but the obvious reason we are where we are is too much gubment spending. Republicans, Democrats, they are all guilty. I do wonder why we hear so much about how we must raise the 'debt ceiling' but nothing substantial about spending less and reducing the debt... Would make more sense to me to do that, rather than raising the 'debt ceiling', and already making plans to raise it again... rolleyesrolleyes

 

That is sexist! We need to hang the bit@@'s also! :-D

 

Obviously the solution is to send in the marines, and hold them hostage until they pass a bill. There's no question of good or bad, since they're all bad, but pass something.

 

Yes, but when one party has a majority in both the House and the Senate, compromise isn't (usually) necessary. One party just runs over the other.
But then you have to consider the president's veto and what it takes to override that veto.

Just recently I heard a legislator express his feeling that the two thirds majority requirement in California ?
has totally upset the legislative process and resulted in what he referred to as Rule By Minority.
That's a very interesting concept and one which we may be seeing played out right now in the House of Representatives.

I think we are seeing less and less compromise in the U.S. congress in recent years.
Ironically, the current president seems to be steadfastly devoted to that ideal and spoke of it repeatedly during his campaign.

One thing that makes this more confusing is that, as I understand it, the debt ceiling pertains to debt already incurred.

 

Ya, before all hell breaks loose. One can't make radical and informed decisions when under the gun.

I saw an interview with a doctor on CNN this week where he was targeting 'patient hotspots' in his city and with some inhouse care by an RN reduced ER visits by %50! That's quite the savings eh? This what we do up here.

The problem with 'American socialism' is that you guy's can't get it right for some reason like the rest of the Western world can!

 

Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain... Next up, the US.

 

Anyone up for some spanakopita, salted cod, squid or Guiness?:-D

 

You know I had to quit drinking Guinness when they started brewing it in Canada. :-D Help the US debt, drink American made beer! :-D

 

You're a masochist eh?:-D However, it's nice to see micro-breweries and fans of same give a big middle finger to the 'big boys'.

/end hijack.

 

Yes Augie, was a sad day when I saw the words 'Product of Canada' on the bottle. I almost dropped it!:-D At least they still brew the cans of Guinness in Ireland. Where Irish beer SHOULD be made! :-D

 

Send them up there with some Limbaugh tea to sell... Get money for the debt. :-D:-D

http://www.twoifbytea.com/

 

Bring 'em on man! We ain't afraid of no false 'tea baggers'. It's your unique religious problem.

Who the heck up here is insane enough to be fooled by that druggie eh?:-D

Ya, if she can see beyond her pair of wellheads.:innocent:-D

Don't forget Bachman and her hubbie's 'Gay Reclamation Center' thru prayer.rolleyes That is such a professional place. Sounds like that preacher's ideal, Tim Haggart I believe? Oh yeah, I'm really OT now! *sigh*

 

Who do you thinks there when 'thingy' raises his head

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Harper

:-D

If I were in Obama's shoes its a no brainer,do what the Republicans want then when it goes bad blame Bush,if it goes right he's astute.

Win Win.:cool

 

Whoa, this is a dicey thread.

I'm not going to say anything on the subject other than...

Pray to whom ever brings you faith because we all may be in for the bumpiest financial ride since.... well.... ever!

Even though I'm a very proud Englishman, I'm happy to be in Canada this last few years and few to come, since this crisis hasn't hit here nearly as hard as the States and Britain and several other countries.
Once again hats off to Canada for holding it's own, while it's far from perfect the rest of the world could learn a thing or 2 from this sleepy nation. Even Richard Branson praised the fact that Canada started lifting out of the recession before other major countries had stopped falling into the hole.

Money Gods help us all!

 

Ya and she could see Cdn. health care from from her back porch too? :-D Now I'm gonna get out of here......

 

I might take up praying this time actually:-D That was the point of the thread really to have a chat about the near future,let your worries out 'I am quite concerned'

We could argue about who's fault it is until the cows come home but it won't change the fact that this is happening now,its worrying to say the least.

I'm not so much worried about the rest of the world as much myself and my family,it been pretty bad already with the cuts over here everyone is feeling it,just shopping in the supermarket is noticeably more expensive over here it seems like you get nothing for your money now,along with the spending and job cuts its not nice.


I thought things were getting or gonna get better and now its becoming apparent things could get much,much worse:confused

 

Hear hear Ned! Well said! We had 'ZERO' bank failures during this time along with our normal %7.5 unemployment. We didn't have the American housing bubble because of our regulations of how much a bank could loan compared to its assets.

While the American dream was eroded by nefarious shady dealers, the whole house of cards collapsed.

There was a great interview with the current CEO of GM on Fahreed Zackaria(sp?) on CNN today and how the stimulus package worked for them, especially saving the upstream suppliers of car parts as they need a certain amount of business to stay afloat, this includes all car makers since it's the same guys that supply them all.

GM has paid back %60 of their loan so far and they are doing well.

Here's Fareed on the current stupidity.http://us.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/07/30/exp.ac.zakaria.tea.party.debt.cnn?hpt=hp_t2
Interview with GM's CEO Ackerson, quite refreshing really. http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/vide...akerson.debt.debate.jobs.cnn?iref=videosearch

 

Interesting replies. I love how Palin gets automatically hated on. And the Bush blame goes on... Well, consistency can be a good thing.

 

Very interesting video,I admit I had to look up the 14th ammendment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_ammendment

I can't work out how exactly it applies,that's a lot of words,is there pop out version of the 14th amendment?:-D

I think it just means the president has the power to increase the debt ceiling.

Who's Blamed Bush:confused

What do you call Sarah Palin doing math?

Baked Alaska:-D

 

While I feel somewhat secure in my situation, since I own barely anything and my job is pretty tightly secured and the way things are going in Canada don't have me too nervous. It's you guys back home I'm worrying about, obviously my family and my country. Since I've been here all I've seen is my homeland natives take hit after hit, shops closing, people struggling. The cuts recently with military and security sadden me. I am watching from the outside as my home falls from grace, but I do have every confidence in Britain that she will pull out of this, stand up and march on.
How long it will take is anyones guess.

What we have to do as the people is do what we do best... Deal with it.

As for blame, I have to blame Bush for Fred's sake :-D
but realistically as you said Rikky, it wont help.
To quote Blackadder in some form ..

"Trying to find blame is like a broken pencil..... Pointless"

 

Crap Rikky, I would have been really sad if you hadn't of had to look up something in the US gubment! They're so pervasive here ad nauseum.uke

BTW, how about Pi'd Alaskan instead? Ya know, math and all that the kids ain't larnin these days because no one wants to pay for it through taxes.:-D

 

President Obama will speak in about 10 minutes. Hope it's good news or at the very least some progress.

 

And the hate continues against someone who is not an elected official, and is not currently running. Interesting. As far a as the reference to Bush, see post 27. (think I got that post number right.)

 

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."

Obama, 2006


rolleyesrolleyes

Just a rumor, but I heard Obama say he can see debt from the White House!

 

Crisis? What Crisis?
Cheer up, America: Our nation won't default, nor is our government dysfunctional.

 

Our government is highly dysfunctional. They just kicked the can down the road a bit. I predict the Tea Party will be bigger next few elections. Who knows.:cool

 

...and your gas will be $10 min. and your 401K's will turn into penny stocks. It took a long time to get to this point and it will take a long time to get out of this hole and inflexible attitudes need not apply. I think Americans are smart enough to see who the real jerks are here.

 

Don't think gas will get that high. But it is rumored that 401K plans will soon be called 201k plans. :-D



Yes, I agree with you Augie. It is very easy to see who is at fault and why. Question is, can we overcome the problems we face and remain stable?

 

They have to agree to something now and work out the details later or we all lose, Canadians included. BTW, it's been everybody's fault for a long time. Maybe now the American psyche will start to focus on 'what they can do for the nation instead of being greedy bastards'.:-D

 

Ya know, as much as I dislike the 'Tea Partiers' going on in their diatribes, I can't disagree with the philosophy of cutting gubment involvement but the social side of me says, keep everything and eliminate the waste and graft, just their tactics.

 

The waste and fraud you would think would be the easiest and first place to cut. I don't think any logical person thinks obtaining gubment money by fraud is proper. Would cut spending, without actually cutting needed social programs. But, we talking about the gubment... No logic need apply.

 

But that is what exactly needs to happen. There needs to be a reset of the American Economy because it is vastly overvalued.

 

You mean my post,this

Cmon:confused I was doing the blame bush joke,its your joke FGS!

How come when you joke about ONLY Democratic politicians and policy its just joking and when I joke about ALL politicians which I do you only pick up on the jokes about Republicans and call it "Hate speech"

Trust me I couldn't give a FF about any of them,in any country,let alone spend enough time thinking about them cnough to hate them,believe it or not I actually like Bush as a person,Palin doesn't seem too bad either but they're still politicians.

The only thing they give me is a little laugh at their expense to get me through another long day.

 

Saw on the news this morning they've hammered out a deal where they both compromise to try and meet halfway,so Obama hasn't put his foot down and enacted the 14 amendment.

As far as I know the bill has to be brought before congress and voted on,tomorrow I think.

I don't see how there could be any other outcome really,the longer this things drags out the more it will harm you guys and hence the world,I noted the stock maklet picked upon the announcement.

 

A couple of days ago I heard an explanation of the 14th amendment by a university law professor.
He said that first and foremost it establishes that the united states debt can not be questioned and that it must be honored.
Further, it can not be used as political leverage or to manipulate other legislative issues.

Therefore, attaching a requirement for a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget, is itself unconstitutional.

A report that I heard last night (07-31-2011) stated that the agreement to raise the debt ceiling is
Not contingent on adopting a balanced budget amendment.
The balanced budget amendment will be handled as a separate issue, as it should.

 

Sorry, sarcasm and such don't work to well in a text based forum... I was joking also... :-D