On Sunday, Trump hinted that the United States might renege on some of the $36.22 trillion that it owes on the national debt. Speaking to reporters Sunday on Air Force One about Elon Musk’s review of government spending, Trump said:
We’re even looking at Treasury. There could be a problem—you’ve been reading about that, with Treasuries, and that could be an interesting problem because it could be that a lot of those things don’t count. In other words, that some of that stuff that we’re finding is very fraudulent, therefore maybe we have less debt than we thought of. Think of that!
“For those not familiar with how financial markets work,” Paul Krugman later explained on BlueSky, “U.S. Treasuries are the ultimate safe asset, used as collateral for everything. Even a hint that some Treasuries might not be honored could bring everything to a screeching halt.”
The bond market’s initial reaction to Trump’s comments was to shrug them off. “Trump’s veiled threat is so insane that it won’t happen,” Harvard economist Jason Furman assured me. Politico’s Victoria Guida quoted an administration official saying that Trump was talking about unspecified Treasury payments, not Treasuries, prompting some of the business press (for instance, Bloomberg) to report that Trump’s meaning was unclear. Trump’s meaning was not unclear, and that administration official was lying when he or she said Trump was talking about unspecified Treasury payments. Go back and look at what Trump said. It’s on video, for Christ’s sake. (Fast forward to 21:15.) He said, “Treasuries.” You aren’t imagining things. Your president is not a well man.
The bond market’s calm won’t last if Trump repeats his threat once or twice more, as he tends to do until he gets a reaction. Or it may react with even greater alarm than expected when Trump and congressional Republicans reveal their deficit-busting tax plan. (The bond market has for some time been freaking out about the budget deficit.) “The political world needs to appreciate the fact that he’s playing with fire that will burn everyone,” MSNBC’s Steve Benen observed Monday. I second that.
I know this came out Sunday, but I can’t shake the thought of what happens if he destabilizes treasuries.
It’s like the episode of Rick & Morty where Rick shows the easiest way to destroy a government is changing a 1 to a 0.
That’s this.
there are several recent examples of a dictator type forcing interests rates low and causing hyperinflation in recent years. it does not take much. its way easier to fuck things up than unfuck them. which is why posts about how the folks unfucking stuff are not doing a good enough job while we allow the fucker types to run things half the time make my eyes roll into another dimension.
This whole article and idea is based off this:
We’re even looking at Treasury. There could be a problem—you’ve been reading about that, with Treasuries, and that could be an interesting problem because it could be that a lot of those things don’t count. In other words, that some of that stuff that we’re finding is very fraudulent, therefore maybe we have less debt than we thought of. Think of that!
You have to do a lot of inference to get anything of substance from that nonsense.
“That’s too insane for him to actually do” is exactly the sort of complacency that got us into this mess.
Mainstream media is also saying that flagrantly ignoring court orders would be too extreme for Trump while his administration is engaged in this very action.
And exactly what he and his lackeys did the last time they were in power.
I can’t think of a time they did something this blatantly illegal in term one but it’s been a while so I may have forgotten.
flagrantly ignoring court orders
They did a lot of this. Several Trump staffers straight up ignored court subpoenas.
The question I would be asking is what is this revlation a smoke screen for?
He’s going to crash the whole world at this rate, but I’m not sure if he understands that the rest of the world will recover from the crash and will leave the US as the pariah that must be avoided under any circumstances.
He doesn’t care, he will be in his Gaza resort, swinging a golf club and stuffing his geriatric pie hole with McDonald’s.
Or dead. He’s old and unfit to walk from the parking lot to McDonald’s, even his health is going to drop him soon
Evil tends to have a staying power
Dony was put in place to burn the country to the ground and line his pockets with the ashes.
Trump ain’t found shit. Putin found it.
