Given what the threat of a Greek default is doing, what would the Tea Party have done to world financial stability if they had managed to force a US default on debt?

I’m not so sure as to the specifics of what might happen. I’m not an economist so my best guess is it would be a major disaster? I’m also not sure whether the Tea Party freshmen really understand the possible repercussions of their intent. And if they do, I’m not sure they even care about what happens to the world. Do they even think about it at all?

It would have been immeasurably worse.

My question: has the Tea Party learned their lesson? My guess? Not.

The Tea Party figures that the economy needs to be punished for its excesses. We don’t need regulations. We need to let the economy punish business naturally. Then they will smarten up. They figure that the short term deep pain will lead to a long term stronger economy. They think the long term benefit is worth the short term catastrophe.

Who can say they are wrong? It hasn’t happened. It probably never will happen. But it is possible they are right.

There is a kind of consistency between the position that you don’t bail out failing companies and the position that you don’t bail out failing individuals. Let individuals take responsibility for their own lives, come hell or high water. Your choices; your life; your problem. Companies, being individuals, should be treated the same as human individuals.

@mazingerz88 & @marinelife GA! Thanks

@wundayatta It has happened in 1029. It caused a worldwide depression and the pain and fear of that led to WWII and 60 million deaths. It took almost 20 years to finally sort it out. We don’t need to run yet another experiment to see what happens when you let a wholesale failure of the banking and financial system happen—or more accurately in the case of the Tea Party, when you deliberately provoke such a failure when there is no need for it to happen.

@ETpro But that’s history. What does history matter?~ Oh wait. It’s the Tea Party. Maybe history does matter. Or maybe only certain history. [Shrugs shoulders]

I have seen no real evidence that any Tea Party members actually have the ability to reason. I did not vote any of them into office & I sincerely hope that the problems they have caused since taking power has been noted in the minds of the voters. However, one has to wonder. I saw a ‘straw poll’ this morning on yahoo that said more people think that Reagan was the better president between him & Roosevelt! Can you believe that?? Reagan & his ‘Trickle Down’ economics led to the out-sourcing of American jobs to other countries & he dismantled the regulations that kept the Wall Street & banks in check. He actually did more damage to the US than Bush did. Roosevelt, on the other hand, saved the the US with his New Deal policies.

@wundayatta Thanks for being generous with the typo. I meant 1929, not 1029.

@Linda_Owl Trickle down never made sense. If you want to help the poor, why do you need to take money from them and transfer it to the wealthy on the hopes it will trickle back down? Why not just leave the poor with the money they have got? 20 years of trickle-down now and it hasn’t been a trickle, it’s been a flood. It hasn’t gone down, it’s all gone up to the top 1% and even more to the top 1/10th of 1% and wildly more to the top 100th of 1%.