23: Debt ceiling crises, with Noreen Harrington

Noreen Harrington’s background in finance has involved working on everything from running Treasuries for Goldman Sachs to helping manage the creation of the Euro. In this latest episode of Onward, she joins Fundrise CEO Ben Miller to help us better understand why the upcoming debt ceiling crisis in the United States is a serious threat to economic stability. Today, there are a number of macro crosswinds in play including China’s challenge to SWIFT banking and the rise of digital currencies. These factors set the stage where a politicized debt ceiling crisis threatens to put the fundamental credit and reputation of the US dollar on the line. As Noreen explains, “If we default even one day, I think the ramifications could be on your children and their children.” Even so, from an investing perspective, Noreen validates one of the primary ideas we’ve championed at Fundrise for the past several months, as The Great Deleveraging unfolds: “I think if you have liquidity, there'll be an unbelievable opportunity coming for you to have rescue capital.”

15:05 Noreen's Perspective

Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at [email protected].

Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).

Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.

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