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Default choices often remain unchanged for no reason other than being the default, either because of this lack of information or humans' status quo bias.

I'm afraid sometimes certain individual cases of defaults are unavoidable. What we should do is to step up monitoring, properly handle relevant matters, and ensure there is no regional and systemic financial risk.

Nobody wants to put the creditworthiness of the United States in jeopardy. Nobody wants to see the United States default. So we've got to seize this moment, and we have to seize it soon.

Positive defaults align our short-term decisions with our long-term interests. And we don't always do that.

The rules are all wrong today. The mandate of the media really does pre-date the founding of the United States.

A default on our debts as a result of not meeting our obligations would be a disaster for the stock market, and Americans would see their retirement funds shrivel up.

In fact, I think - our view of this is that while the agreement, the compromise did not achieve the kind of super-sized deficit reduction that we sought, it did end the uncertainty around the perception, the possibility that the United States might default on its obligations for its first time. That was a good thing.

If we reach the debt ceiling, we don't have to default. Getting to that point just won't allow us to reach new debt.

Too often, a problem is allowed to fester until it reaches a crisis point... and the American people are left asking the question: what went wrong and why?