Lindsey Graham: America Should Intentionally Default On Trillions In Debt To Punish China For Pandemic
Lindsey Graham has an idea. And it isn't a good one.
During an appearance on the Thursday evening edition of Fox News's Hannity (where sanity goes to die), Graham delivered a lengthy critique of Beijing's role in the COVID-19 pandemic.
As is often the case with Fox's programming, the English language fails as a sufficient tool when it comes to conveying the level of absurdity on display during Graham's choreographed discussion with Sean, one of countless "interviews" the two men have conducte
Time to have done that with any meaningful impact has long past. The FED has monetized everything and we’d only be hurting ourselves.
Faux News = Where Rational Thinking Goes to Die
Great hypothetical about Treasuries if this happened. I think it’s a rush to cash, gold, and even crypto as opposed to the typical haven bid of Treasuries themselves.
So Carlson thinks we could build a coalition to punish. If the trade negotiations were done as a coalition of nations instead of US going alone that may have had a grain of viability. This administration has proved to be an unreliable partner. It would be a disaster to future generations and certainly a punishment to ourselves presently.
God,when I was a kid we were taugh to hide under desks to avoid nuclear destruction. Now it is talking heads that could easily start the biggest famine the world could expieience. The pandemic would be kiddie shit. All to win a few votes.
Well I see this senator has gone to trump university and taken his econ 101 class.
Methinks the King of Debt originated this idea and Knight Graham is dissemminating it?
Would Lindsay Graham’s plan include China devising the equivalent of Brady Bonds for the USA? Does his plan limit defaults to Chinese-held UST’s only? How would that work? Keep us laughing, please…
Bad stuff happened under our watch now let us manipulate whatever we can in order manage the scrutiny of us. Merit does not matter, we are republicans: by gawd.
I hate to say this, but the outrageousness of Graham’s comments suggests that someone in this Administration (maybe Trump himself) is seriously thinking of declaring war on China sometime between now and election day. Simple. Call off the election, declare martial law and bury the Constitution. Voila, Emperor Trump for a life.
my thoughts exactly
Yup!
The next two weeks may be huge….stay tuned to the Inspectors Generals and Senate attitude about it.
“Graham’s idea is a one-way ticket to a complete market meltdown.”
The senators would have liquidated their equity stakes prior to this meltdown as some did in last one.
Cheeto never met a debt obligation he didn’t want to default on. He told us he would run the country like he ran his companies.
Insanity runs a-mock.
It would be better to just print some 1 trillion dollar coins and ship them over saying debt paid in full but ultimately this is just pointless posturing about GOP being fiscally responsible. “I know how we pay for it!” Then blame Democrats for not letting them.
Well when the weekends get too long we as a group on this website tend to drift off into the realm of absurdity….Thus we get mention of Lindsey and the gang at Fox…..Market opens tomorrow !!!
Over the past few years I’ve seen way, way too many (right wing) fringe ideas make their way into the mainstream, to include Donald Trump descending the escalator at Trump Tower and announcing his presidential bid. Who ever thought that was going to happen (except Michael Moore)?
I hate to say it, but I tend to agree with Antony A Phipps: this is probably the first stab at socializing the concept…seeing where it goes…seeing what kind of feedback occurs. This is how the Overton Window gets shifted.
It’s just one terrible idea after another. From Trump’s reopening the economy early and letting the virus explode again to the traitorous Republican leadership that left Trump in power now threatening to default on the loans owed to China which have helped to keep America afloat. Trump and his band of idiots are the enemy and you have to wonder who Trump is listening to for direction. Whoever it is, is not our friend. They are working hard to destroy America. It’s Easter while you’re at church pray for this country’s survival.
We keep allowing ourselves to be governed by amateurs just because they say they hate the LGBT and are anti-abortion and we have only ourselves to blame. This happy accident of a republic we call the USA has been intent on destroying itself almost since it was founded. It seems inevitable that our leaders are now ready to finish the job. The next step will be to disenfranchise “enemy” voters and name Papa Don “Emperor for Life.” What a country.
We are entering the dangerous phase Trump presidency, failure phase. Increasingly we should expect to see lashing out at all enemies real or imagined in order to keep from losing power. That these lashings only serve to drive away support is not part of the calculus as times become more desperate. Thank you for illustrating this to this very small audience. Hopefully a larger publication such as WSJ can devote resources to helping stop this self-destructive phase of the ruling party and with it our country.
Hey, Heis, it time for you to write swiftly a newly minted “Modest Proposal” for attacking China forthwith!
just when you think things couldn’t possibly get any more bizarre…
Someone/Anyone in D.C.: “Hold my beer.”
I mean, it IS doable right? Today’s fringe Republican idea becomes tomorrow’s mainstream Republican platform somehow becomes Tuesday’s policy. Every Treasury comes with a digital token, a CUSIP. The Treasury and the Fed can void them, and instruct Wall Street that they are irredeemable. The Administration can argue that it doesn’t violate the 14th Amendment (which Republicans are not keen on anyway) because it isn’t a backdoor default but a sanction instead. Just like with MMT, the government can dare the world to switch away from the largest global reserve currency, the largest risk-free asset, and undermine the underpinning of the “deepest, most liquid market” knowing that inertia and U.S. power will prevent that. The United States will face either a currency crisis or a debt crisis eventually anyway, so if it can use weakness to project strength and make a significant foreign power and rival take the hit to kick that can down the road, I can see us doing that. This idea will gain traction in the future.
A ridiculous idea embraced by idiots, and will never happen. Not sure what the point of the write up was, other than making angry partisans into angrier partisans.
Its strange that this idea as you so up in arms. You’re worried about the health of the bond market? Does the American banking establishment’s credit rating worry you? China and Russia have been dumping treasuries for at least a decade. De-dollarization is official policy all over the Mideast, Central Asia and Eurasia in general. Its the SCO and BRICS’ watchword. Of course Graham and the neocons are full of it, and they’re trying to shift blame for the Depression onto both a virus and another rival country, but the notion that cancelling debt is getting you this angry strikes me as very odd. It would be a test of the dollar’s strength. The test will fail, and America’s influence abroad will wane. Is this a problem? You sound like a libertarian speaking of the sacred trust of elite debt, debt which, by the way, we have to pay. I wonder if you have financial ties your readers might want to know about.
Matthew, I think you must be new here. 🙂
The Japanese professor of physiology or medicine, Professor Dr Tasuku Honjo, caused a sensation today in the media by saying that the corona virus is not natural. if it is natural, it will not have affected the whole world like that. Because, depending on the nature, the temperature is different in different countries. if it were natural, it would only have affected countries with the same temperature as China. instead, it spreads to a country like Switzerland, the same way it spreads to desert areas. whereas if it were natural, it would have spread in cold places, but would have died in hot places. I have done 40 years of research on animals and viruses. It is not natural. It is manufactured and the virus is completely artificial. I have been working for 4 years in the Wuhan laboratory in China. I know all the staff of this laboratory well. I called them all after the Corona accident. but, all of their phones have been dead for 3 months. It is now understood that all of these laboratory technicians are dead.
Based on all of my knowledge and research to date, I can say this with 100% confidence that Corona is not natural. It did not come from bats. China made it. if what I say today turns out to be false now or even after I die, the government can withdraw my Nobel Prize. but China is lying and this truth will one day be revealed to all.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasuku_Honjo
Snopes says NOPE! Tasuku Honjo did not say this garbled garbage.
Statement from the Professor: https://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/about/events_news/department/koto-kenkyu-in/news/2020/200427_1.html