Are there even any funds?

Posted Oct 28, 2025 12:04 UTC (Tue) by taladar (subscriber, #68407)
Parent article: Python Software Foundation withdraws security-related grant proposal

I was under the impression that the US government is in a state of temporary bankruptcy right now that is so bad that they are forcing some of their more essential employees to work without pay. Does that grant money even exist to begin with?

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Are there even any funds?

Posted Oct 28, 2025 12:30 UTC (Tue) by willy (subscriber, #9762) [Link] (3 responses)

That's not how a sovereign currency issuer works. The US government can literally print as many dollars as it wants to. It cannot go bankrupt.

The problem is that it does not want to. Congress has not passed a budget and the various tricks it usually uses have expired. So there is a "shutdown".

The US government has never defaulted on its debt. Other sovereigns have. And the US government has recently rescinded grants (and lawsuits are pending over those).

Are there even any funds?

Posted Oct 29, 2025 12:17 UTC (Wed) by taladar (subscriber, #68407) [Link]

> The US government can literally print as many dollars as it wants to. It cannot go bankrupt.

Well, not technically but then you would have hyperinflation and the US already has an oversized money supply that will be a huge problem if other countries drop the US dollar as a reserve currency.

Are there even any funds?

Posted Oct 29, 2025 12:19 UTC (Wed) by rbranco (subscriber, #129813) [Link] (1 responses)

> That's not how a sovereign currency issuer works. The US government can literally print as many dollars as it wants to. It cannot go bankrupt.

Yes it can. The value of currency is determined by supply & demand. If you print too much, there's oversupply and you risk less demand for currency and bonds that turn to junk.

And the Federal Reserve is not part of the US government.

Are there even any funds?

Posted Oct 29, 2025 13:43 UTC (Wed) by jzb (editor, #7867) [Link]

Obligatory "this is not aimed at any one person" editorial comment, but this has strayed well far away from the topic at hand at this point. In the interest of keeping the comment stream related to LWN topics, let's stop here with discussions on currency, electoral systems, etc.