US-Finanzexperte: „John Boehner muss liefern“

Millions of people around the world are watching the fight over the US government shutdown, the debt ceiling and the health care reform with baited breath and trepidation over the consequences for the global economy, but ultimately can't comprehend why the US is veering toward the economic abyss. If anyone can explain this to rest of the world, it must be an American Nobel laureate in economics.

„The potential impact of the failure to raise the debt ceiling would mean the US could not borrow more to continue its various payments for services and promised benefits and for interest on the debt. So the first thing to recognize about the debt ceiling is that it is not a common practice. It is something that does not exist in most countries.

What it does is open up from time to time the political process that goes with one side or the other threatening to not approve an increase unless there is some political change that they are in favor of. I view that as hostage taking. I view the shutdown as really unfortunate, as very expensive both in the services provided and also in the finances of the government, because this is not a money saver to have it shutdown. The federal employees will get paid for all of this whether they worked or didn't work.

The words we see how this is going to be destructive for the country strike me as laughable and also remind me of the fact that Republicans were saying the same thing about the creation of social security in the 1930s and that this was going to destroy the American freedom which of course it did not. “

How optimistic are you that the looming default can still be avoided?

„I don't think it does much actually. I think the harm is primarily short run. Just as the previous fight over the debt limit visibly harmed the economy in the short run, but had no lasting effect after that. While US credit standing was downgraded I saw essentially no effects coming from the downgrading. It certainly did not have any visible effect on interest rates. “

16. Oktober 2013
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