Economic Rationality, Twenty-First Century Style: A critical examination of its realism, pragmatic value, and ethical consequences

In 2011, U.S. Congressional fi gures engaged in a protracted debate focusing on the debt ceiling, the disposition of which portended dire consequences in the minds of both those arguing the need to raise it and the opponents of doing so in the absence of corresponding spending cuts if their respective positions failed to prevail (Newton-Small, 2011; Rogers, 2011). The debate unfolded intermittently from early January to August 2 (“Timeline,” 2011), which was the date on which Treasury offi cials anticipated that the extant debt ceiling on borrowing would be reached, with the United States thereafter having to default on loans from its creditors (Murse, 2011) and to face economic diffi culties the country certainly did not need.