Owning US government bonds like holding a ticking time bomb

THE SHUTDOWN of some departments of the US federal government has lasted for nearly a month, creating a record in terms of duration. Economic Information Daily comments:

It is unlikely the deadlock between the White House and the Democrats who control the House of Representatives will be broken any time soon.

But another cause of the impasse, which has been cloaked by the knockabout partisan political struggle over the building of a wall on the border with Mexico, is the issue of the United States' public debt.