FirstRead analysis … RAW DATA: Unemployment rate Then: 7.8% (Jan 2009) - Now: 7.8% (Dec 2012) Dow Jones Industrial Average Then: 7,949.09 (Close Jan 20, 2009) - Now: 13,534.89 (close Jan 15, 2013) Gross Domestic Product Then: -5.3% (1st quarter 2009)) - Now: +3.1% (3rd quarter of 2012) Consumer Confidence...
Gail Collins described it best … “When it comes to political games, this debt ceiling thing is like playing chicken on the railroad tracks. While wearing snowshoes.”
The U.S. government will exhaust its borrowing authority between mid-February and early March if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling, outgoing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress in a letter on Monday. The nation nudged against the $16.4 trillion debt ceiling just before the New Year. Geithner has since been...
Politico writes, “The looming debt ceiling fight may look like a classic “who will blink first” Washington debate, with a ticking time bomb waiting at the end. But for lawmakers like Pat Toomey, Steve Scalise and Daniel Webster, there’s no reason for Republicans to blink — because the time bomb...
Monday was Obama’s 21st full White House news conference and 108th time taking questions from the press, according to CBS News’s Mark Knoller, who tracks these statistics. The President repeated his call for deficit reduction but warned against the potentially catastrophic effect on the economy by tying cuts to raising...
Wonkblog Ezra Klein NO PLANTINUM COIN writes, “The Treasury Department will not mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin to get around the debt ceiling. If they did, the Federal Reserve would not accept it. That’s the bottom line according to Anthony Coley, a spokesman for the Treasury Department.” “Neither the Treasury...
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