Free Republic

Every country should pay its sovereign debt. Default, we are told, is not an option. But has anyone told China? The United States pays interest on approximately $850 billion in debt held by the People’s Republic of China. China, however, is currently in default on its sovereign debt held by American bondholders. Successive U.S. administrations have chosen to sidestep this fact, allowing business and trade with China to proceed as normal. Now that the relationship with China has soured and the People’s Republic of China has become the greatest adversarial threat to the U.S. and Western security, policymakers should revisit...

Some student loan borrowers encouraged others to default on their loans "en masse" following the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to cancel President Joe Biden's student loan debt forgiveness plan, but one expert told Newsweek why that may not be a good idea. "Okay, thing I can actually talk about: Mass default on student loan debt would be a really effective message and f*** you to this country from the folks most impacted by our constant slide backwards. Just don't pay it. Hit the bricks. En masse," Twitter user Derek Van Dyke wrote. On Friday, the Supreme Court reached...

Like the song “Walk away Renee,” the owners for the San Francisco Union Square Hilton and Park 55 Hotels are walking away from their sizeable loan payments. San Francisco is definitely feeling the blues. But it isn’t just San Francisco. Phil Hall reports that Fitch Ratings reduced its 2023 outlook for the U.S. real estate investment trust (REIT) sector outlook from “Neutral” to “Deteriorating,” citing the tumult in the commercial real estate space. While Fitch noted that most of its rated REITs “have the capacity to withstand such a slowdown within rating sensitivities [and] those with ample dry powder could...

Biden, Schumer, Yellen, and Brainard, luminaries in the leftist galaxy, spread fear of default. They focus solely on Treasury obligation default. Were they honest, these federal bureaucrats should also discuss default on exorbitant government spending on welfare and entitlement programs. Don't let them misdirect the argument to debt default only. These are two very different methods of default. It is irresponsible of these leftist luminaries not to look at both aspects of federal spending. When the Federal Reserve started printing dollars (called quantitative easing or Q.E.) in 2008, they used that $8 trillion of new money to expand federal spending...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Sunday applauded the debt limit deal forged by House Republicans and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) with President Joe Biden. Gingrich took to social media to set out his thoughts on what he hailed as a “dramatic victory.” He said: The Debt limit deal is a dramatic victory for Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans. Before they passed their history changing bill no one would have believed it possible to cut spending, reestablish work requirements, reform permitting for energy and infrastructure and more

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent a letter to Congress on Friday, saying that the government will now have until June 5 before it runs out of money to pay its bills rather than the June 1 deadline she had announced. "Based on the most recent available data, we now estimate that Treasury will have insufficient resources to satisfy the government's obligations if Congress has not raised or suspended the debt limit by June 5," Yellen said, according to ABC News. That allows congressional leaders a few more days to negotiate with the White House. Congressional leaders were expected to vote...

VIDEODespite the fact that we have been warned that the debt ceiling situation could lead to the existential crises of a default, Congressman Jerry Nadler is pleasantly sleeping through it all. Is he sleeping any more deeply than Joe Biden who has taken a lid from Friday afternoon until Tuesday rather than actually negotiate on the debt despite the Janet Yellen default zero hour that is rapidly approaching? And what voices is Nadler hearing in his dreams?

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen changed the drop dead date on a US default from June 1 to June 5, daring Speaker McCarthy to step over the line. The debt ceiting is so urgent that Biden went on vacation to Delware for Memorial Day weekend. In fact, Biden and Yellen expect McCarthy to dance. White House and Republican negotiators tentatively narrowed differences but were still clashing Friday on key issues as the Treasury Department signaled extra time was available before a potential US default. The new so-called X-date buys negotiators for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden more...

President Joe Biden has been seemingly unable to catch a break as he and the White House scramble to show competence and strength amid debt ceiling negotiations with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) who has outmaneuvered Democrats at what seems to be every turn. This week, amid contradictory and increasingly desperate White House press briefings, more bad news for Biden emerged in the form of a new poll showing more Americans would blame Biden for a default than they would McCarthy or congressional Republicans. The survey, conducted and released by Fox News with direction from Beacon Research and Shaw and...

What happened to Biden? He used to be a “reasonable” Senator (reasonable for a racist Democrat, that is), willing to negotiate with the opposition on budgetary issues and the debt ceiling. Now we have “Progressive Joe” who is acting like crazy Progressive Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal from Seattle. {Aka, Seattle’s Worst!} But his newly found Progressive identiy is leading down a terrible path. Rating agencies are putting the US of credit watch because of Biden’s newly found Progressive back bone. (Progressive means progressing towards full blown Communism). Ratings company warns on worsening political partisanship US AAA ratings on review with negative...

I have gotten a flood of emails and text messages asking about what happens if Biden defaults on the US debt. In short, Biden has made a career out of spending money, as has Speaker McCarthy. They both have an incentive to raise the debt ceiling, but whether it is cuts to Biden’s insane budget (higher than Covid-era spending) and wants to raise taxes on the middle class to pay for it. McCarthy wants a trimmed budget (aka, back to pre-Covid spending levels) and NOT raises taxes. They will eventually agree somewhere in the middle (US Congress member Pramila Jayapal...

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said Thursday that President Joe Biden would be responsible for “any default” on the nation’s $31.3 trillion debt after he “ignored this debt crisis for more than 100 days.” There are 9 days left for Democrats to meet the deadline, but since President Biden ignored this debt crisis for more than 100 days—make no mistake—any default would be the Biden Default. https://t.co/P5YOjE5PbC — Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) May 23, 2023 “There are 9 days left for Democrats to meet the deadline, but since President Biden ignored this debt crisis for more than 100 days—make no mistake—any...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tried to calm fears of a possible debt default Tuesday, pleading with everyone to “relax” as talks continue between the White House and House GOP negotiators ahead of the likely June 1 deadline. “I think everybody needs to relax,” McConnell told reporters in his home state, again reiterating that the nation will not default on its payments, a declaration he’s repeated throughout the negotiation process. “The last 10 times we raised the debt ceiling, there were things attached to it. This is not that unusual. It is almost entirely required when you have divided...

It sounds like President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have resolved one crucial point on the debt negotiations. They’ve reached the most important agreement — they will avoid a default and take that option off the table.They came together to list their points of agreement:JUST IN: Pres. Biden outlines agreements and pain points in ongoing debt ceiling negotiations with House Speaker McCarthy: "We both agree default's not really on the table. We've got to get something done here." https://t.co/9q3mCFLnXe pic.twitter.com/cCVsPE3WSy— ABC News (@ABC) May 22, 2023That’s going to flip out the left who seemed set on driving us...

If the debt crisis roiling Washington were eventually to send the United States crashing into recession, America’s economy would hardly sink alone. The repercussions of a first-ever default on the federal debt would quickly reverberate around the world. Orders for Chinese factories that sell electronics to the United States could dry up. Swiss investors who own U.S. Treasurys would suffer losses. Sri Lankan companies could no longer deploy dollars as an alternative to their own dodgy currency.

You hear it everywhere. "The U.S. has never defaulted on its debt." Yes, but: It’s not true. By the most basic definition of default — not making agreed-upon payments to those you owe — the U.S. has defaulted, arguably on multiple occasions. Why it matters: The talking point on the pristine U.S. credit record is a key bit of rhetoric for those arguing that not raising the debt ceiling — which would ultimately mean missing payments the government owes — represents an unprecedented economic risk. But in reality, the U.S. has failed to meet obligations in the past. What they're...

Like the famous novel “All Quiet on the Western Front,” its “All Quiet on the Default Front” as China Joe and Speaker McCarthy are set to meet again. In short, Biden wants to raise taxs on middle class and McCarthy wants to return Federal spending to pre-Covid levels. Sure, Biden throws around the Bernie Sanders’s tax on millionaires and billionaires line, but they know that M&Bs have professional accounts and lawyers to protect them while the middle class has Turbo Tax and H&R Block. In any case, markets are calm (the calm before the storm?) although I think Biden WANTS...

Its May 21st and Biden still refuses to budge on paring back his massively bloated budget of green energy payoffs. Yet Biden laughingly stated it isn’t his fault if the US defaults on its debt. It is absolutely 100% Biden’s fault and he should be impeached if he fails to meet Republicans half way. (Bloomberg) Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the US is unlikely to reach mid-June and still be able to pay its bills, underscoring the urgency of the White House reaching a deal with Republicans to raise the debt limit. “Well, there’s always uncertainty about tax receipts and...

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) on Saturday said default would confirm Chinese President Xi Jinping’s assessment of a broken U.S. political system, as the White House and Congress negotiate over the debt ceiling amid the possibility of default. “The single worst thing we could do is default. It would confirm Xi Jinping’s assessment that we have a flawed and broken political system, that we can’t solve our most basic challenges, and it would weaken us in the eyes of the rest of the world,” Coons said on MSNBC’s “Velshi.”

Joe Biden is the worst public speaker of any President in history. Here is “Babbling Biden” lying about the great reduction in Federal budget deficit. First, Biden didn’t “balance the budget” liked he claimed at Hiroshima. In fact, the Federal budget deficit, while improving, is still worse than it was before the 2020 Covid economic shutdown. Biden, Schumer and Yellen are ignoring the $187 TRILLION in UNFUNDED entitlements promised America, even though Biden keeps threatening to halt Social Security payments if Biden and Yellen default on the debt. No discussion of the runaway train of entitlemennts. I love this Bloomberg...