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So, is America now a complete laughing stock abroad? I really wonder what non-USian folks think about all this political posturing and willingness to play chic

So, is America now a complete laughing stock abroad? I really wonder what non-USian folks think about all this political posturing and willingness to play chicken with the financial reputation of the US.

dhs 15y ago
I'm actually quite sad. This seems so unnecessarily self-destructive. It feels like watching a girl cut her forearms with a broken beerglass.
burgerbrain 15y ago
Laughing stock abroad? Hell, they're a laughing stock in the US right now.
ugh 15y ago
I’m more worried than laughing. I would laugh if what’s happening were inconsequential to me.
tomjen3 15y ago
Most people don't, do the newspapers do mention it every couple of days. Granted I am in Scandinavia so they are likely to be more biased but right now they are far, far more concerned with the terrorists reaction when he heard the number of people he murdered, who was buried first, etc, etc, etc.
anonymoushn 15y ago
I don't think anyone is doing that. There is precisely no risk of sovereign default, even if we don't raise the debt ceiling for a couple years.
- mdda 15y ago
  The consequences of a downgrade are TERRIBLE : So much of modern finance relies on Treasuries being AAA to act as some kind of bed-rock. Just like your idea of 'precisely no risk' of default, what would happen if the programming constant ZERO was only guaranteed to be close to 0? And not really a constant?
  - anonymoushn 15y ago
    I said that there was no risk of sovereign default. Our tax revenue exceeds the cost of our debt service by a factor of more than 10. Do you anticipate that our blended interest rate will increase by a factor of 10 in the near future? We would certainly run a great risk of downgrade (but not of default) if we raise the debt ceiling without making any significant effort to lower our deficit going forward. This seems to be the plan of our politicians, however.
justincormack 15y ago
Its just another blip in the entertaining dysfunction of your politics.
Luc 15y ago
It's a major ongoing story in the newspapers here in Belgium (front page, all of p.3 today in mine). Don't worry, we and other countries in Europe that I am familiar with have our own face-palming political situations, though of course our countries are smaller. If anything it makes me feel we're all in the same boat together.

dhs 15y ago

I'm actually quite sad. This seems so unnecessarily self-destructive. It feels like watching a girl cut her forearms with a broken beerglass.

burgerbrain 15y ago

Laughing stock abroad? Hell, they're a laughing stock in the US right now.

ugh 15y ago

I’m more worried than laughing. I would laugh if what’s happening were inconsequential to me.

tomjen3 15y ago

Most people don't, do the newspapers do mention it every couple of days. Granted I am in Scandinavia so they are likely to be more biased but right now they are far, far more concerned with the terrorists reaction when he heard the number of people he murdered, who was buried first, etc, etc, etc.

anonymoushn 15y ago

I don't think anyone is doing that. There is precisely no risk of sovereign default, even if we don't raise the debt ceiling for a couple years.

mdda 15y ago
The consequences of a downgrade are TERRIBLE : So much of modern finance relies on Treasuries being AAA to act as some kind of bed-rock. Just like your idea of 'precisely no risk' of default, what would happen if the programming constant ZERO was only guaranteed to be close to 0? And not really a constant?
- anonymoushn 15y ago
  I said that there was no risk of sovereign default. Our tax revenue exceeds the cost of our debt service by a factor of more than 10. Do you anticipate that our blended interest rate will increase by a factor of 10 in the near future? We would certainly run a great risk of downgrade (but not of default) if we raise the debt ceiling without making any significant effort to lower our deficit going forward. This seems to be the plan of our politicians, however.

justincormack 15y ago

Its just another blip in the entertaining dysfunction of your politics.

Luc 15y ago

It's a major ongoing story in the newspapers here in Belgium (front page, all of p.3 today in mine). Don't worry, we and other countries in Europe that I am familiar with have our own face-palming political situations, though of course our countries are smaller. If anything it makes me feel we're all in the same boat together.