Did Treasury Just Strategically (Intentionally) Default?

The Market Ticker ® - Commentary on The Capital Markets
Posted 2011-07-01 18:54
by Karl Denninger
in Federal Government
Ignore this thread
Did Treasury Just Strategically (Intentionally) Default?


It sure looks like they did.

Yesterday.

Here's the DTS (daily cash statement) for Treasury.

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=189249

And here's the problem with it:

Note that the pink line did not move much. In fact, it went down.

It should have gone up - a lot - because the "Trust Funds" (you know, Social Security and Medicare?) that you folks on the left keep bleating about being "money good" and "actual debt" had a coupon payment from Treasury due yesterday.

IT WAS NOT MADE.

IF IT HAD BEEN, IT WOULD HAVE BLOWN THE DEBT LIMIT.

That's a default, and it instantaneously destroys both the claim that such activity is not "selective" or, if you prefer, "strategic" and it also destroys the argument that Medicare and Social Security Trust fund "debt" - not just public debt - is subject to the 14th Amendment and thus is "protected" against the Treasury choosing to blow it off.

By the way if you're curious about how much this should amount to (~$90 billion, more or less) have a look at the June 30th, 2010 DTS statement.

Oh, and as for Geithner? He said that any default on any obligation would trigger an immediate market panic. Well, this did - straight up on the S&P and DOW. So much for Timmy's lies.

Have a nice day.

Hattip Publius on the forum who caught it before I did.