4 ms·
A compulsive gambler, already hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, goes to a loan shark to borrow another five hundred bucks. He now has an operating cash
by hugh3 15y ago
A compulsive gambler, already hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, goes to a loan shark to borrow another five hundred bucks. He now has an operating cash balance of five hundred dollars, while still having a net worth of minus six figures.
- grannyg00se 15y agoThen I agree that the number is pretty much meaningless. The government can easily increase their operating cash balance simply by incurring more debt. It's the debt, and the deficit that seem most relevant to my untrained mind. In fact, if you want to compare with a corporation, I'd compare the entity's deficit as a percentage of its revenue.
- hugh3 15y agoThe government can easily increase their operating cash balance simply by incurring more debt. Except, and this is the whole reason that we currently have big problems, the Government currently can't legally incur more debt, unless Congress passes an increase to the debt ceiling. So cash-on-hand is currently a serious issue.
- jodrellblank 15y agoAnd so trillion dollar changes to a major world economy of 310 million people are made by last minute bickering. It's boggling.
- prodigal_erik 15y agoYeah, it's a titanic game of chicken between the dominant parties. As The Economist put it, "biggest unforced error in history still on schedule". http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/07/democracy-america http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/07/democrac...