Nothing New Under The Sun

The President and Congress are engaged in in a grotesque game of economic brinkmanship.

First there is the continued funding of the government when the latest temporary spending authorization expires at the end of next week; second is an increase in the legally permitted debt ceiling that will be needed by the end of May - at the latest. If the latter does not happen, the USA - just like some third world hellhole - will be forced to default on its sovereign debt or simply to stop paying its bills.

Our situation brings to mind a thought from German sociologist and political economist Max Weber:

"Ultimately there are only two kinds of deadly sins in the field of politics: lack of objectivity and—often but not always identical with it—irresponsibility.

Vanity, the need personally to stand in the foreground as clearly as possible, strongly tempts the politician to commit one or both of these sins."

Given that Weber died of the Spanish flu in 1920, it is clear that our situation proves, once again, that there is nothing new under the sun.