Glad to be going back to work tomorrow, but still struck with sadness by how wasteful this has been. From a good piece by Slates Dave Weigel, Were just acknowledging that Boehner had to waste two weeks and billions of dollars in lost wealth to break the majority of the majority Hastert rule. As wasteful as the shutdown has been, the approaching default is what Im really concerned with. The willingness to creep up and look over the edge of a really, really ugly fall is concerning. Deeply. You can say that alls well that ends well, but thats only true until it doesnt end well and I cant stress enough how dark and hard that scenario was. We just dodged a bullet and just barely. Im all for glad for being happy for that but then theres the fact that the bullet came from a gun in our own hands, so along with being glad about not being shot, we *really* need to care about how we got to this point, with a gun in our hand and a bullet that just missed us. **I know it seems that this metaphor is pretty severe, but please hear me say that its not.** The dangers around default seem complex and obscure but thats why we have to listen to experts and not politicians when it comes to such an issue. The vast bulk of economists have been saying very loud and clear Dont mess with default. To do so risks grave danger. But we actually allowed some politicians, who are not experts on economics, to say, No, I dont think thats right. Since 2005, theres actually a word for this: truthiness. All humor aside, were doing ourselves a disservice if we forget just how dangerous this can be and how vigilant we all must be. Today could have gone another way. End this with a high note by watching that original scene but please dig deep and remember that this debt ceiling scare holds the same game theory principles as MAD. No one wanted default just like no one wanted nuclear war, but we let ourselves get awfully close to it nonetheless. colbertnation/the-colbert-report-videos/24039/october-17-2005/the-word---truthiness
Posted on: Thu, 17 Oct 2013 04:23:41 +0000
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