New York Sun: U.S. default has already happened -- twice

An editorial in the New York Sun notes the irony in the urging of the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, for the United States to take on more debt while the IMF used to urge other countries to get their financial affairs in order by reducing debt.

But the Sun's really profound observation is that the U.S. government's default on its debt is not an imminent risk but rather is settled history.

The Sun writes: "Instead of a budget deal, America could step up to monetary reform. It could stop all the pretense that there'll be a default. What's needed is recognition that the default already happened. It happened in 1971. It happened again in the past decade. The value of the dollar, once regulated by the Congress by law at a 35th of an ounce of gold, has seesawed wildly, eventually plunging to below a 1,900th of an ounce of gold. It is, at the moment, lurking under a 1,250th of an ounce of gold. The troubles we've been going through, in other words, are not the forerunner of default. They are the consequences of default."

The Sun's editorial is headlined "Lagarde Lectures Her Owner" and it's posted here:

http://www.nysun.com/editorials/lagarde-lectu...er-owner/88451/