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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Upside Of Government Default, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
The Upside Of Government Default, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
No abstract provided.
Some Possible Consequences Of A U.S. Government Default, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
Some Possible Consequences Of A U.S. Government Default, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
The U.S. government faces a looming fiscal crisis. A default on Treasury securities appears inevitable. The short-run consequences for the economy will be painful. But the long-run consequences, both economic and political, could be beneficial. The most important long-run political benefit would be the imposition of fiscal discipline. The long-run economic benefit would be the alleviation of the future tax liabilities required to service the national debt, irrespective of whether those liabilities are correctly anticipated or not. A historical examination of the state government defaults of the 1840s provides one case study where the long-run consequences were indeed salutary.