If it happens, remember, the only person who can put us into default is Obama.
We have the cash on hand to pay the debts. He needs to act like an adult and set priorities.
It's all on Obama.
Given his anti-American ideology, it's better than even bet that he will default and cause a run on the dollar and blame the Tea Party
it be whole of congress is default deep down. even if obama pays of the debt as this newspaper article points out
dollar would lead to a sharp increase in the cost of nearly everything, as more US dollars would be needed to pay for imports. The collapse of the dollar would lead to a massive increase in inflation. Filling your car might cost $200 or more. Goods would soar in price.
Equity markets would crash. The housing market would crash even more as credit would become nearly impossible to obtain.
US consumers would be obliterated nearly overnight. Savings would be wiped out due to rampant inflation and the collapse of the major North American market indexes as well as the real estate market.
Companies would be crushed by a US consumer that would no longer have any buying power. In addition, credit would dry up virtually overnight, which would force untold numbers of companies to shutter their doors.
Unemployment in the country would spike to obscene levels. The country's "safety net" would likely no longer exist. Social Security would likely be a distant memory - we've raided the Social Security piggy bank to fund the nation's deficits over the last number of years - where would the money for Social Security come from in the event of a default? The US government owes programs such as Social Security, etc. more than $4.6 trillion.
The IMF has approximately $200 billion available in lendable resources. Let's assume that the US hit the IMF up for a loan - this loan would come with harsh stipulations, as we've seen in other countries over the past couple of years. The United States would need to make extremely painful spending cuts, which would throw the entire nation into disarray.
A US default would have dire ramifications on our major countries throughout the world, and it would be very likely that there would be a chain reaction of sovereign debt defaults.
