Commentary
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned again (and again and then again) about the dire approach to Washington’s debt ceiling. She has told the nation that the prospect is near and that it could cause the country to default on its debt, an event, she adds, that would bring financial and economic chaos.
Media outlets and others in the political establishment have echoed her and fanned the flames of fear. Default would, of course, bring financial and economic chaos, but it is far from an inevitable result of a debt ceiling constraint. Washington has confronted debt ceiling problems many times in the past and has never come near default. The good secretary might explain that fact….