In my min,d there is arguably a greater risk of a default on the debt of a U.S. state than there is on the debt of a euro-area member. I consider it unthinkable that a euro-area country would default.
If we get to the point where we damage the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity.
I like jeans, but I think in 100 years it's going to be crazy when we look back at the fact that everyone, every day for about 60 years straight, wore stiff blue pants as their default. Why?
We tend to default to complacency. Stick to the easy option. We all do it. We've tried to create a business model and society around us that is as easy and boxed as possible. We love creating boundaries and borders.
The people who did the collateralized mortgage obligations, sold them to pension funds, then sold them short, then bought credit default swap insurance on them, are just amazing. They are a law unto themselves.
I knew 'Mars Needs Moms! ' would be a movie seconds after the title came to mind. Similarly, I also knew that my daughter would be calling me a dork as a default term of endearment eventually.
I don't know of any of us that want to see any kind of default happen.
The American people were really not 100% convinced that this idea of default was really going to occur, and I think the media, current company excepted here, did not help in that regard because they confused the American people about what default actually meant.
A credit derivative, at its core, is actually a very simple concept... The simplest way to think of a credit derivative is it is analogous to insurance against the risk of a credit default by your counterparty, your business counterpart.
I have a home in Orlando. That's kind of my default 'getaway' city.
