Even a $2 trillion increase would push the U.S. debt to about 53 percent of the overall economy, "only a few percentage points above where it was in the early 1990s," Lilly writes, noting that plummeting interest rates show that "much of the world seems not only willing but anxious to invest in U.S. Treasurys, which are seen as the safest security that an investor can own in a risky world economy." ...Hmmm.
As for the specter of default, Steven Hess, lead U.S. analyst for Moody's Investors Service, said even a $2 trillion increase in borrowing would not greatly diminish the U.S. financial condition. "It's not alarmingly high by our AAA standards," he said. "So we don't think there's pressure on the rating yet."
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Saturday, January 03, 2009
A Counterpoint
... to my incessant rantings about debt.
KT, not bothering to dig deeper into the numbers, I believe the real danger of Bailout Nation is more existential in nature, as in, we are creating a culture where failure is not an option because no one will be allowed to fail and where bad judgement, avarice and stupidity will not be punished as we all know it should.
ReplyDeleteNot to be too graphic but this is all just one big condom that is lulling us into believing that there are no consequences to our actions.
Keep ranting.
P.S. I will now blast some Neil Young to cleanse my soul of the horribleness of that clip.
Dean, I thought it was worth posting this, even though I don't believe it. While this particular spending spasm might not break the bank, the trajectory of the debt will. I don't seen any plan to slow down the growth of debt.
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