Real economics and the debt ceiling debate

Those of us who worry about the real economy are reduced to angry sputtering over the latest irrelevant "economic" debate that has gripped Washington and the corporate media.  Why?  Because if there was ever a perfect example of the Predator Classes run amok, this kabuki theater over the almost irrelevant technicality that is the debt ceiling is it.

Since the banksters who control virtually the entire agenda want the debt ceiling raised, the breathless "will they or won't they" coverage of this non-event is especially ludicrous.  The downside of not raising the ceiling is the destruction most everything they hold dear.  This does not mean, however, that the austerity ghouls won't attempt to extract the maximum concessions from a public terrified of another set of economic calamities brought to us by the economic terrorists who tell us they must be accommodated or they will blow up the global economy.

In real economic terms, the banksters are demonstrating once again that while they have the ability to wreck things, they have no power to make things better.  For example, the ability to actually address the problems caused by Peak Oil will be sharply diminished if the country caves to the austerity ghouls but raising the debt ceiling will not build a necessary new infrastructure that allows us to import less oil. As the old Populist saying went, "Any jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a carpenter to build one."

But since some of my readers have asked me to explain the debt ceiling debate, I am delighted I found an interview of Yves Smith over at Naked Capitalism that does a pretty good job of it.