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Market implies a 3.9% probability of default (US 1 year credit default swap, which is basically a product for buying insurance against the risk of a US default
by tikkun 3y ago
Market implies a 3.9% probability of default (US 1 year credit default swap, which is basically a product for buying insurance against the risk of a US default risk). https://www.msci.com/www/blog-posts/the-cds-market-s-view-on-us/03820087801 https://www.msci.com/www/blog-posts/the-cds-market-s-view-on...
It feels like we've gotten here (to the point of massive national debt, and an economy where rate hikes wipe out banks) for a few reasons:
1) The US economy is like a big forest. Good forest management involves doing controlled burns or allowing small fires. The US has prevented small fires. So now we have a very overgrown, very flammable forest.
2) The US abusing its position as a world monopoly, basically to make money. Issuing more currency as one key way of doing that. There are good monopolies and bad monopolies. I'd argue Amazon is a good monopoly - they continually reinvest in making their product better for customers, keeping the potential gap between what a benevolent monopoly could do, and what they're actually doing, small. Then there are other monopolies like certain large enterprise software companies, that take advantage of their moat to extract value and don't reinvest much. The US govt has done the latter.
Burning the forest down would be chaotic for the world. The world doesn't want that.
The question is - how do you fix it without burning the forest down?
- 88913527 3y agoThe implied 3.9% probability is lacking context, since reaching the debt ceiling is a fairly regular occurrence. Is this probability any different from previous times is what should we should be asking.
- mateo411 3y agoWhy is the US economy like a big forest?
- curiousgal 3y agoThat probability of default is based on the credit triangle which is a back of envelope type of estimation, I would take the number for face value at all.
- patrickmay 3y agoDisallow spending more than was received in the past fiscal year. Force Congress to do the hard job of balancing the budget instead of relying on ever increasing debt.
- partiallypro 3y agoIf the budget were actually balanced that quickly the US economy would collapse. It's not tenable.
- ChatGTP 3y agoNumber 2, I agree. I think it’s kind of outrageous the USA is able to do this. I’m no longer sure what the world owes the USA but it’s pretty obvious to me having and endless money printer is quite an unfair advantage. My sentiment is the rest of the world can clearly see this as being a something of a problem now and it’s why there is some sentiment towards de-dollarization. Not saying that is a good idea but I’m certain those feelings just exist.