Chuck Morse is joined by Sam Blumenfeld for political commentary on the eve of the 2012 election and by Murray Holland, the author of "A Nation in Rad - The Government Debt Crisis and what we can do about it."

Overview

The history of sovereign debt defaults has a common thread of too much debt accumulation by both the government and businesses where the accumulation becomes an integral part of the national system of business and government. The use of debt by governments is a politically easy way out of increasing taxes that people do not want. It is also a good mechanism to make the economy appear as though it is growing when, in fact, it is false growth. Sovereign debt defaults as well as economic, currency and banking crises are all interrelated. Sovereign debt crises occur when a government cannot or will not pay interest and principal on its debts. Investors stop lending to that government, and the entire economy of that country goes into depression as the government can no longer stimulate the economy with borrowed money. Economic crises happen when investment and business activity slow down in a country. When businesses slow down expansion or actually downsize, they fire employees who in turn cannot pay their mortgages or eat out at restaurants; if the downturn is large scale, it can cause banks and other businesses to fail. The unavoidable conclusion is that sovereign debt default is almost a common occurrence and size of the government has nothing to do with a default.