What the Fuck is the Debt Ceiling?

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week your hosts attempt to answer the question many economic neophytes have had through our latest news cycle: what the f--- is the debt ceiling? At the center of recent political discourse amidst our latest Congressional standoff, the debt ceiling is something many find hard to grasp (including one of our very own), but fear not, for our resident politicos Zak and Ed are here to outline the debt ceiling’s history and relevance to modern politics and economic policy. Exploited for electoral gain and manipulated for political expediency, the names change throughout the last half-century. Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich and his Republican controlled house, and most recently Trump; as one party decries government spending under the auspices of blue-controlled executive and legislative bodies, the very same party in fact raises the arbitrary spending allowance of our government to the extent that it fits their opportunistic intentions. But first we present a trio of appetizers in rant form, as Zak details the Geno Auriemma-cosplay of West Virginia’s failed highest elected official; Andrew examines NBA COVID protocols with a nod to a former number one pick’s refusal to take the most efficient shot of his underwhelming career; and finally Ed spotlights the irrelevancy of the man behind FiveThirtyEight via the lack of accountability taken by his oft-failed predictive models.