Exactly. The 'debt ceiling' is actually a Keynesian debt floor designed to maintain artifical aggregate demand.

The true debt ceiling is the coming hyperinflation and low dollar from playing these games. The country lost its wallet and thinks it can be replaced with new ones stuffed with more fiat money from the Fed.

Stupid liberals.

To push the analogy further, it is more like a couple with a "two-signatures-required" joint bank account. There are more bills outstanding than the account can pay, but one spouse refuses to sign the application for a bank loan to meet the upcoming bills.

Apparently izzatzo carries around only gold coins to guard against non-existent "hyperinflation" and other zombies like "low" dollars. Give me those "low" dollars any day.

Yeah. I thought hyper-inflation was supposed to come in 2010 because of the Socialist, Kenyan president and his (actually inadequate) stimulus bill. Moderate inflation is what got us out of debt after World War II. I wish policy elites were focused on jobs and not the non-existent inflation threat, or the sham debt crisis.

Speaking of NPR, they ran a journalistic atrocity this morning in the form of a love letter to Alan West. I didn't know that he was so important that the reporter, Greg Allen, had to do a beat-sweetener on him. Or maybe it was a beat-sweetener for the whole Republican Party. NPR is so focused on being a respected part of the inside-the-Beltway mainstream media, they have sacrificed truth for sucking up to power.

But just because the bond market is currently offering Uncle Sam a teaser option ARM loan with zero interest for the next 6 months, does not mean we should borrow the funds! Not without a _really_, _really_ careful re-examination of what we are buying and whether the marginal loan will produce a real improvement in our economy.

Just because the bond market is overflowing with rentiers who are desperate for safe "investments", does not mean the U.S. can afford to borrow more. Federal debt-to-revenue already vastly exceeds sustainable levels, and there's absolutely no Keynesian cushion for the next recession!! (Which, if we are back to the classic 4-year business cycle, is due in only a few months, given that the last recession started in Q4 of 2007...)

It makes no sense to borrow more funds for imperial wars, for wasteful tax breaks for people who are already very well-off, for wasteful tax policies that stimulate malinvestment in nonproductive assets, for a medical system that is grossly wasteful - the worst in the developed world. Etc.

We need a smarter federal spending prioritization. We need better policies -- policies that boost job creation without adding to the deficit. We need to encourage all the spare cash sitting on the sidelines to purchase tangible products rather than financial "investments". Negative real rates ought to do it... and that would also push out some inflation to bring the nominal debt back to a reasonable proportion of the economy.

I'd be a lot more comfortable with this debt ceiling hike if Congress showed even an ounce of financial sense in terms of how to spend the money to fix the nation's problems! I see no reason to give Congress more money if all it will do is continue to line the pockets of gluttonous special interests.