Right now, the going rate on 30-year T-bills is a little over four percent (http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/domestic-finance/debt-management/interest-rate/yield.

Right now, the going rate on 30-year T-bills is a little over four percent (http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/domestic-finance/debt-management/interest-rate/yield.shtml http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/domestic-finance/debt-managem...), so it seems like the people and institutions that loan “us” (i.e., the United States government) money are fairly confident that “we” will not default. (Granted, a lot of US debt is held by foreign central banks that are not purely driven by return on investment, but presumably if the Bank of China really thought the US was close to default, they would not be so inclined to throw their assets in our direction.)