US Debt Ceiling hits today

[Bolshevik Sickle]

So when the debt ceiling hits does that mean the USA is going to end up like Zimbwame where you have to take a wheelbarrow of dollars for a gallon of milk, or will it be like Tsarist Russia where the government (or dictatorship) keeps everything for itself leaving the people to starve.

Either way, the future looks grim.

[Comrade Jacob]

No, they'll just raise the debt ceiling again.

[Creative Destruction]

The debt ceiling was raised last night by the Congress. The hyperinflation experienced by Zimbabwe will probably not be experienced here, since Zimbabwe's problem was that they kept printing money, just arbitrarily. We don't just arbitrarily print currency to that extent. They weren't borrowing from anyone or pegging the currency to anything. It was pretty much monopoly money.

We're borrowing cash and countries around the world are still confident that the dollar is a safe currency to buy, along with the Euro. The U.S. dollar's strength is that people have confidence in it, whereas there existed absolutely no confidence in the Zimbabwe dollar. Although, if these crises keep happening and we actually default at some point, then that creditworthiness and confidence is gone. That's about the only way I think we'll get Zimbabwe-like hyperinflation. But even then, I can't imagine the U.S. getting to that point without also completely collapsing (Zimbabwe is still a country, with a quasi-functioning government. But they don't have a currency anymore. Everyone trades in SA Rands or US dollars.) And a collapse of the U.S. is detrimental to the worldwide capitalist system, whereas Zimbabwe is basically a joke.

[Bolshevik Sickle]

No, they'll just raise the debt ceiling again.

I'm pretty sure they can only raise it so long. Balloons can only hold so much air until they bust.

[Red Commissar]

I'm pretty sure they can only raise it so long. Balloons can only hold so much air until they bust.

The debt ceiling is an accounting method for government expenditures, it's different from from the debt itself though tied to it (basically authorizing the treasury to pay its obligations on bonds and such). Only other country with a similar mechanism is Denmark but they've never had it turn into tool for politicking.

[Popular Front of Judea]

When did avowed revolutionaries start to subscribe to the fantasies of Ron Paul and the rest of the Austrian shills? You do realize that Ron Paul has been saying America is on the verge of hyperinflation -- since the US went off the gold standard in 1971?

[Proteus2]

Its Wall STREET not Ceiling. Are you people fuckin stupid?

[ckaihatsu]

I'm pretty sure they can only raise it so long. Balloons can only hold so much air until they bust.


Would just like to remind everyone of the U.S.'s special 'global protection racket' status:





The essential conflict was that the American role as military defender of the capitalist world's economic system was recognized, but not given a specific monetary value. In effect, other nations "purchased" American defense policy by taking a loss in holding dollars. They were only willing to do this as long as they supported U.S. military policy. Because of the Vietnam War and other unpopular actions, the pro-U.S. consensus began to evaporate. The SDR agreement, in effect, monetized the value of this relationship, but did not create a market for it.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system#Paralysis_of_international_mo netary_management

[Sheepy]

Its Wall STREET not Ceiling. Are you people fuckin stupid?

This isn't the place for meaningless rhetoric.