[lbo-talk] Krugman: The Zombies Who Ate Alan Simpson's Brain

[socialismorbarbarism]

Doug H: "What's it going to do with the useless T-bonds it owns? They
can't be sold to the public - they're legally nonmarketable. Cash them
in at the Treasury? What will the Treasury use to pay them off? Once
you have a fat chair at Princeton and a column in the NYT you don't
have to answer such pesky questions?"

OK, I have neither a fat chair at Princeton nor a column in the NY
Times, so I will plead ignorance. Has the the US Government de facto
defaulted on its bond obligations to Social Security? Is this because
everyone knows the US will bail out Wall Street firms, but won't print
Social Security checks someday because everyone knows Social Security
can't/won't cash those T-Bonds? Because everyone knows the US "has to"
fulfill its debt obligations, but not Social Security obligations,
because these T-Bonds for Soc Sec are something different? Something
that everyone knows and nobody is supposed to talk about? Because,
yeah, it's news to me.