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bokov comments on US default as a risk to mitigate - Less Wrong Discussion

2 Post author: bokov 15 October 2013 04:41PM

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Tags: instrumental-rationality risks economics

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Comment author: bokov 16 October 2013 04:13:24AM 0 points [-]

I guess I meant, the treasury has no legal authority to decide which obligations are paid and which aren't.

http://www.businessinsider.com/can-the-treasury-prioritize-payments-if-the-debt-ceiling-is-breached-2013-10

Given how much money is at stake, and the depth of the financial market for T-bonds, and the fact that it is legal for congressional staffers to engage in insider trading, I'm sure that anticipations on this are very well calibrated.

Ah, now that would be useful information. Do you know if congressional staffers have to file some sort of disclosures when they make trades? If there's a site where such disclosures are published, that might be what's needed to infer what mix of actual and fake insanity we're dealing with here, and which way they're expecting things to go.

Comment author: James_Miller 16 October 2013 04:27:20PM 3 points [-]

Part of the way they get paid is by providing info to hedge funds and then getting high paying jobs after they leave Congress with the hedge funds.

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