The Nation's Debt Ceiling

On Monday, October 7, 2013, The New York Times published an article titled "Why the Debt Ceiling Matters" written by Joe Nocera, one of The New York Times' Op-Ed Columnist. Nocera writes why the U.S. Government's debt ceiling should matter to everyone (or at least to Americans) and explains how it will affect the World's financial stage if the U.S. falls into default. He brings up the word "catastrophic" and how, in years past, this particular word had scared Congressmen to spur into action to keep the nation from defaulting. The Tea Party Republicans, according to Nocera, wants the U.S. Government to go into default in order to bring about "the smaller government they so yearn for."

From there he builds his argument stating the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution will come in as a possible solution that President Obama may use to ignore the debt ceiling. Nocera argues a second point of how the U.S. Government Debt is important to the world financial market as being a model that is used to measure the world's financial system. If the U.S. were to go into default, Nocera believes that it would cause several consequences to our economy and the world's economy. He continues in the article about how Social Security recipients would possibly not be paid because the U.S. would prioritize paying other creditors like bondholders in China if the U.S. defaults. Joe Nocera then asks the question of why the nation would risk one of its greatest asset, "the backing of its debt" when it gives the United States so many advantages.

Joe Nocera's intended audience seems to be aimed towards the general public and possibly to the Tea Party Republicans. I do believe that he has credibility in his writing because he also works with NPR as a business commentator and has over 10 years in experience with several business related magazines and papers. From what I'm getting from Joe Nocera's article is that he believes we should raise the debt ceiling in order to create stability for the our economy and the world's economy. Nocera's argument of how the U.S. would have less credibility with its investors, if we defaulted, made a strong point. I agree with the argument that if raising the debt ceiling is what it takes to divert a world scale financial problem, then so be it. I think its better to stay afloat in misery than to sink into despair. I will say though, that a small part of me does disagree with raising the debt ceiling because it makes me wonder if the U.S. will ever have a reasonable amount debt that we can handle. If we continue to allow ourselves  to raise the debt ceiling, it means that America's future generations will continue to be drag into this never ending process. It seems that every year or so the U.S. Government goes through this crazy process and can never really find a true end all solution. Some drastic measures would probably be needed to fix this problem. What those measures could be is hard to say, but it's truly something the nation as a whole really needs to think about.