‘Insanity’ if debt ceiling not raised: Karl Denninger's Thoughts

01-02-2011 • Market-ticker.org

I'm sure you are aware, Goofhead, and if you lose your job you can run up the credit cards for a while, and in doing so your neighbors and associates will likely not be aware that you were fired. But eventually you will walk into a store, slap your $100 toy on the counter and whip out the plastic, and it will come back on the XON terminal: DECLINED. Then what? You wish to argue that this won't happen in America? Really? That's what Ireland, Greece and Iceland all thought. All three were wrong. When one speaks of playing "chicken" with the deficit what one needs to speak of is whether we will face our idiocy and correct it on our own, and on our own schedule via debate and deliberation, or whether an external force - those lenders who say "APPROVED" on that credit card - will do it for us, quite possibly without warning. Oh sure, technically-speaking it is impossible for The United States to go bankrupt. Bernanke can simply monetize every dollar of debt you issue. That much is true. What's also true is that every dollar he monetizes is a devaluation of all of the currency and bonds that are held by everyone else. Those who sell us things that we (foolishly) became dependent on over the last thirty years through our idiotic policies (such as, oh, oil) have a habit of going up in price when we do this. That increase in price of course causes even more capital to flow beyond United States borders while squeezing the American People even more - for those who need to get to work the purchase of gasoline is hardly a luxury, and in the winter the purchase of heating oil (really diesel fuel - same thing, distillate #2) isn't one for those who use it either.