Alan Blinder on the Debt Limit
futureofcapitalism.com

Alan Blinder — the Wall Street Journal identifies him as "a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University" and "a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve," but doesn't mention that he's senior adviser at Promontory Financial Group — has a piece in the Journal warning:

At some point, Mr. Geithner could wind up brooding over horrible questions like these: Do we stop issuing checks for Social Security benefits, or for soldiers' pay, or for interest payments to the Chinese government? Such agonizing choices are what make default imaginable.

Maybe I'm missing something, but this one doesn't seem as horrible or agonizing as Professor Blinder says it is: if the choice is between paying the Chinese government or American soldiers and retirees, pay the Americans before the Chinese.

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Alan Blinder on the Debt Limit
futureofcapitalism.com

Alan Blinder — the Wall Street Journal identifies him as "a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University" and "a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve," but doesn't mention that he's senior adviser at Promontory Financial Group — has a piece in the Journal warning:

At some point, Mr. Geithner could wind up brooding over horrible questions like these: Do we stop issuing checks for Social Security benefits, or for soldiers' pay, or for interest payments to the Chinese government? Such agonizing choices are what make default imaginable.

Maybe I'm missing something, but this one doesn't seem as horrible or agonizing as Professor Blinder says it is: if the choice is between paying the Chinese government or American soldiers and retirees, pay the Americans before the Chinese.

Read More...