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    Michael Hiltzik: The US economy is again being held hostage to our ridiculous federal debt ceiling

    by Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times Jan 19, 2023 6 minutes
    Newly elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy holds the gavel after he was elected on the 15th ballot at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C, on Jan. 7, 2023.

    The individuals in charge of U.S. fiscal policy are often thought to be among the most sober people in the world, so you may be wondering why we're suddenly hearing ideas such as the minting of a trillion-dollar platinum coin or selling $100 face-value Treasury bonds for $200.

    Sadly, the answer is simple: Infantile poseurs in the House Republican majority are threatening to block an increase in the federal debt ceiling. Again.

    Republican brinkmanship over the debt ceiling has become almost an annual affair. It regularly causes shudders in the financial markets and warnings that provoking a federal default on Treasury securities — presumably the ultimate consequence of a long-term standoff — will have dire effects for Americans in all walks of life and for global economic stability.

    Congressional Democrats have had many opportunities to remove this weapon from the arsenal of ignorant pyromaniacs in the Republican Party, most recently during the lame duck session in late 2022 when they controlled both houses of Congress and

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