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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>John Clark<br><br><b><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>>…</span></b>That's all well and good Spike and I agree with much of what you say, but right now I'm not interested in the long term, I'm far far more interested in the lurking catastrophe that is set to strike in just 7 days if we break our promise and don't pay for things that we already bought.<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal> John K Clark<span style='color:#1F497D'>…</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>They are not going to default John. There are contingencies they haven’t told us about. There’s still a lot of gold in Ft. Knox that belongs to the government, strategic oil reserves that can be sold. Why the hell are we still be stockpiling physical gold? They can furlough indefinitely those government employees currently on furlough. Some leave for other employment, so it cuts the budget by brute force. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>These are all unpalatable options of course, but plenty of the bad choices in front of us are better than defaulting. This default talk is meant to scare, political posturing all of it. The 2016 presidential election is one of those unusual chaotic times like 2008 when there is likely to be no incumbent in the race. Ted Cruz is already running for president, Paul Ryan is running, Rand Paul, Joe Biden, Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Darrell Issa, possibly even Harry Reid and John Boehner, a bunch of others are trying to find a way to wrangle a political advantage anticipating a run for the White House, struggling to not let a perfectly good crisis go to waste. None of these guys are going to risk a run on the banks, or any of that really bad stuff they said could happen if the fed defaults. They won’t default.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>