There's A Word Missing From The Debate Over The Debt Ceiling
But the one thing that neither Geithner nor Obama did not say was that we'd necessarily default on the debt.
This is what would take a crisis into a historic crisis.
Unfortunately, in political reporting there's a lot of sloppy language. People don't have an agreed upon definition of default, but one is needed, since the difference between a debt default, and not making payments to a normal domestic supplier or program is profoundly different.
So there's a word missing.
Default should mean not making a debt payment.
Government shutdown should mean something like 1995, where appropriations lapse.
It'd be nice if reporters and politicians had a new word to describe a massive non-payment of obligations, that didn't quite reach a debt default, since there's a chance that that could happen.