How banks and the Fed are preparing for a US default – and the chaos expected to follow
- Written by John W. Diamond, Director of the Center for Public Finance at the Baker Institute, Rice University

Convening war rooms, planning speedy bailouts and raising house-on-fire alarm bells: Those are a few of the ways the biggest banks and financial regulators are preparing for a potential default on U.S. debt.
“You hope it doesn’t happen, but hope is not a...