Financial Chaos Winners | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

Financial Chaos Winners | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The U.S. government holds gold worth about $400 billion at present market prices. The president has the legal authority to sell the gold plus many other government assets. So even if Congress has not completed a debt-ceiling increase by Aug. 3, the administration could sell gold and other assets to cover any short-term revenue need before it received the legal authority to sell more bonds.

In addition, Mercatus Institute research fellow Veronique de Rugy has identified an additional couple of trillion dollars of U.S. government physical and trust fund assets that could be legally sold to cover budget shortfalls."

"The president has had months to present a plan to avoid the debt-increase chaos — and yet he has presented nothing on paper — only vague outlines of a plan that cannot be scored. The Republicans have passed a debt-limit increase, only to see it die in the Senate. The Senate has yet to come back with an alternative, as would be normal order. If the Senate is unhappy with the House bill, it ought to modify it and then take it to a House-Senate conference committee to work out the differences. It is fairly obvious that the Democrats see more of an advantage in market disruptions than the Republicans."