Default Now, or Suffer a More Expensive Crisis Later: Ron Paul
July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Debate over the debt ceiling hasreached a fever pitch in recent weeks, with each side trying tooutdo the other in a game of political chicken. If youbelieve some of the things that are being written, the worldwill come to an end if the U.S. defaults on even the tiniestportion of its debt.
In strict terms, the default being discussed will occur ifthe U.S. fails to meet its debt obligations, through failure topay either interest or principal due a bondholder. Proponents ofraising the debt ceiling claim that a default on Aug. 2 isunprecedented and will result in calamity (never mind that thisis simply an arbitrary date, easily changed, marking acongressional recess). My expectations of such a scenario aremore sanguine.