Paul Ryan: The Wall Street I Know Is Totally OK With Debt Default For A Few Days
Yeah, right. I call shenanigans on this.
From TPM:
Worried about the debt ceiling fight coming down to the wire and freaking out the world’s financial markets? Don’t be, says Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). The investors he talks to could apparently care less about the country failing to pay its short-term debts, for a little while at least.
“That’s what I’m hearing from most people,” Ryan told CNBC this morning. “What is more important is that you’re putting the government in a materially better position to be able to pay their bonds later on.”
Ryan told the network that he talks to “lots of bond traders” and “lots of economists” and they all say that investors are willing to put up with a default of “a day or two or three or four” if it produced massive budget changes as part of a Capitol Hill debt limit deal.
“They all say, ‘whatever you do, make sure you get real spending cuts,’” Ryan said. “Because you want to make sure that the bond-holder has the confidence that the government’s going to be able to pay them. You’re putting the government in a better position to pay them.”