Debt Ceiling Dread
I know it's kind of girly to go around asking, "So how do you feel about the debt ceiling negotiations," but I'm just kind of curious to know--how are you all feeling about it?
Me, I'm taking it in along with the other headlines:
- Italy money supply plunge flashes red warning signals
- Chinese Officials Meet With Kim Jong Il
- Iran shifts nuclear site underground
- U.S. to refer Iranian satellite launch to U.N. panel
- US sees no damage NKorea can cause as rotating chair of UN disarmament body
- All groups hostile to India on radar: Indian government
- Euro Crisis in ‘Uncharted Territory’
- Afghanistan: US begins to withdraw troops
- The Taliban's propaganda victory
- This Fox hunt not about hacking
- Iran: US trying in vain to save Israel
- Gold prices surge to new record high
- Turkey thwarts potentially devastating Al-Qaeda attack on U.S. Embassy
- Moody's says US may lose top credit rating
- America's weak-kneed response to Assad's political street theatre
- Drawdown in Iraq
- Iranian intelligence minister calls U.S. defense secretary’s threats ‘empty’
And you know how I feel? I feel like this:
Twelve months ago in Brussels, I
Heard the same wishful-thinking sigh
As round me, trembling in their beds,
Or taught with apprehensive dreads,
The sleepless guests of Europe lay
Wishing the centuries away,
And the low mutter of their vows
Went echoing through her haunted house,
As on the verge of happening
There crouched the presence of The Thing.
All formulas were tried to still
The scratching on the window-sill,
All bolts of custom made secure
Against the pressure on the door,
But up the staircase of events
Carrying his special instruments,
To every bedside all the same
The dreadful figure swiftly came.-- W. H. Auden
But perhaps I'm just gloomy. As a friend said to me yesterday--a friend, mind you, who almost never reads the news--"Cheer up!"
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Comments :
May '10
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
Debt ceiling limits will help to curb spending via fiscal policy, but not via monetary policy. Its errant monetary policy that causes recessions. Without the Fed, our fiscal problems would be negligible, so I see the debt limit debate as a bit of a distraction.
May '10
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
I feel like it's March 1861 [corrected from 1865], August 1914, November 1941, and September 10, 2001.
Edited on Jul 14, 2011 at 5:12amMay '11
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
I feel like we're doomed. The president is purposely using this to make the economy worse and to blame his political opponents. No matter what happens at this point, he will do whatever it takes to cause social security checks to stop mailing out and scare the bejeezus out of people. No matter the facts, he will succeed in blaming the republicans because they will be effectively silenced and ridiculed by the media and Jon Stewart. People's lives and well being are meaningless, only retaining power is important and making our country into a communist model like Hugo's and Castro's countries are all that matters. That's how I feel.
Edited on Jul 14, 2011 at 2:59amMay '11
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
How does 1865 fit in with those dates?
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
Anyone feeling, "Oh, it will be fine? Don't exaggerate?"
Mar '11
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
Nope - if anything, I think you are being too optimistic ;-) We should perhaps be like your friend, and not watch the news - but it's compulsive, like watching a slow-motion train wreck that is gathering speed.
Edited on Jul 14, 2011 at 3:43amRe: Debt Ceiling Dread
David Williamson: Nope - if anything, I think you are being too optimistic ;-) We should perhaps be like your friend, and not watch the news - but it's compulsive, like watching a slow-motion train wreck that is gathering speed. · Jul 14 at 3:36am
Edited on Jul 14 at 03:43 am
So it's not just me.
Jun '10
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
Our situation is precarious, but I see reasons for hope. We did take 63 House seats in the last election, and over 600 seats in state legislatures. I think this amounts to an uprising by the grassroots against our ruling elites. I "feel" like it's July 1863. The tide has turned, but the war is far from over.
May '10
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
Good grief, people. I'm don't recklessly bob through life like happy-go-lucky flotsam, either. On the other hand, there's something to be said for a stiff upper lip, determination or, at the very least, sufficient intestinal fortitude to keep us from running pell-mell and screaming, "We're all going to die!" If you can't cheer up, then buck up. I think fatalism is a refuge for those who've already given up, and I refuse to accept that we have - so let's not traffic in it.
Mar '11
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
I'm in the "there is reason to be concerned and engaged" camp, but not running around screaming in helmet-fire mode.
Keep calm and carry on.
Oct '10
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
I'm with Crow's Nest, but with a heavy dose of 'bored' mixed in, too. How can something that involves (a) lots of politicians; (b) so much punditry; and (c) such a short time frame, possibly be as important or dangerous as the chattering classes want us to believe?
May '10
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
Skyler
How does 1865 fit in with those dates? · Jul 14 at 2:58am
Finds out if anybody's paying attention?? (:D) -- I'll edit the original to 1861
Sep '10
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
Your W.H. Auden reference reminds me of the run up to World War I.
May '10
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
As a history teacher, I sense future years will wonder why the voting public was so disconnected and uninformed of the coming disaster. It's pretty frustrating to be one of the few paying attention...knowing full well that many of the uninformed were going to vote to give one of the main culprits in this horrible drama another four years to finish the country off.
Dec '10
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
Obama's re-election is not my main concern. I think he's beatable with any credible candidate. The novelty has worn off about as fast as the bumper stickers disappeared.
No, my concern is surviving the next 18 months. Is it too late to undo the structural, societal changes his election facilitated? If we suffer economic collapse before November 2012, will it be the starting point for rebuilding this exceptional experiment? Or will it be the ending point? If we make it to 2012/13, we have a chance of not having to hit bottom.
Jan '11
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
I'm not so sure that Rapture guy had his date wrong.
It appears it's time to refresh the tree of liberty.
Jun '11
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
I find the current state of affairs nothing less than vindicating. The Keynesians have bought enough rope to hang themselves, and the man without preconditions is now at war in five countries. The West survived the Kaiser, the Depression, Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Stalin, Kruschev, and Mao. The West survived the Huns and the Ottomans. The Lutherans survived the Catholics, and the Christians survived the Romans. Americans will survive Barack Obama. The West will survive the administrative state. The West will endure. As I'm sure many of you are aware, strength rejoices in the challenge. And we have strength in spades.
(ps-for those of you not participating in the Western tradition, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the survivability of your culture and traditions, as I am not learned in your history. Please forgive this omission, and understand that it is not a slight against your ways. Or, at the very least, not an informed slight)
May '10
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
Matthew Gilley
If you can't cheer up, then buck up.
I'm stealing that line.
I expect the whole world's headed Hell in a handbasket, but nothing will stop me from cracking jokes about it.
Jan '11
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
David Williamson: Nope - if anything, I think you are being too optimistic ;-) We should perhaps be like your friend, and not watch the news - but it's compulsive, like watching a slow-motion train wreck that is gathering speed. · Jul 14 at 3:36am
Edited on Jul 14 at 03:43 am
So it's not just me. · Jul 14 at 4:00am
I feel pretty impudent. We're not getting any "real" information on these negotiations: (cuts-how much, when, what is being eliminated?). This is TARP part II - we won't know how bad this thing is till it's all over.
Oct '10
Re: Debt Ceiling Dread
It is like trying to bail out the sinking Titanic with a thimble or a tea cup. Neither makes an impact, but you have one side arguing the other side is not doing enough and you have the other side arguing that one side is doing too much. All the while the ship sinks further and further down into the icy North Atlantic. Cutting $2T over ten years, still has the National Debt increasing by at least $1.8T over that same time period. When the best solution is even greater debt, it just validates US's ranking as 25th in the World in Math.