The new Y2K problem?
Felix Salmon writes:
…it’s far from clear that it’s even possible to stop making the 3 million payments that Treasury makes automatically every day. Doing so involves a massive computer-reprogramming effort which I’m sure could not be implemented overnight — and for political reasons nobody is going to get started on such an effort until after all hope is lost for a deal in Congress.
Now that’s what I call government precommitment. The post is interesting throughout.