First I figured I might as well impose the full consistency condition (and now we re-join the path that David DesJ. outlined).
These agreements go well beyond trade, governing investment and intellectual property as well, imposing fundamental changes to countries' legal, judicial, and regulatory frameworks, without input or accountability through democratic institutions.
But if people expect a default – and also if they believe that once a country takes on the fixed cost of default, it might as well impose a big haircut on creditors – then you could see interest costs rising to a point where default indeed becomes the preferred option.
The temptation, after all, would be to inflate rather than to default – and inflation does not have the same kind of "first bite of the cherry" aspect that default has, in which once you've decided to move you might as well impose a 50 percent haircut or thereabouts on creditors.
The new deal abandoned the raid on savings envisaged a week earlier, which had made a mockery of the European deposit-guarantee threshold of €100,000 by levying a swingeing one-off tax on accounts with less than this amount, as well as imposing a steeper levy on uninsured deposits.
Notably, Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike supported the government imposing tougher regulations on banks and Wall Street firms, as well as imposing the so-called "Millionare's Tax".
There was little that could be done about the import of American music or shifting morals, but many workplaces began imposing strict dress codes for women, banning patterned fabrics, short sleeves and excessive makeup, as well as imposing longer hemlines.
As well as imposing new costs on individuals, they also raise privacy concerns.
As well as imposing capital controls, countries might retreat towards autarky, by raising retaliatory tariffs.
As well as imposing a drilling ban in the Gulf of Mexico, the administration also halted new drilling off Alaska and Virginia for the time being.
