As the Republican and Democratic leadership in Washington suit up for the battle that will be the 2012 budget, a battle that will have a lot to say about the fiscal fate of the U.S. government, we here at THE CONTRARIAN TAKE will be watching like a hawk. As a start, we thought we would have a look at the trends in U.S. government spending, deficits and debt.
A PBS anchor put together a great series of clips from various financial experts talking about what would happen if the debt ceiling isn't raised and the U.S. defaults.
Forget Congress. It's the Fed that has the real headache now America's in the debt doghouse.
Federal borrowing is on pace to hit the legal limit on the national debt in less than a week.
Bail out the euro so Europeans can keep buying stuff? Lock up mineral rights around the world? Spend it on imports? Sock it away under a mattress — or in U.S. Treasury notes — and let the pile keep growing?
Standard & Poor’s, the ratings agency, lowered its outlook for the United States to “negative” on Monday, a warning that the country’s top-notch, triple-A credit rating may be lowered. Credit ratings are supposed to give crucial insight into a debtor’s likelihood of default, so a lot of investors and pundits made a big deal about this announcement.
Greek borrowing costs hit fresh euro-era highs on Tuesday amid warnings that yields will rise further due to growing expectations Athens will be forced to restructure its debt.
China's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the United States must take "responsible" measures to protect investors in its debt after Standard & Poor's threatened to lower its credit rating on the United States due to a bulging budget deficit.
“The growing question is whether the exceptional role of the dollar can be maintained … The growing sense around much of the world is that we have lost both relative economic strength and more important, we have lost a coherent successful governing model to be emulated by the rest of the world … Instead, we’re faced with broken financial markets, underperformance of our economy and a fractious political climate.” Paul Volcker
In what appears to be an attempt to influence the political debate in Washington over federal government deficits, Standards & Poor's rating firm downgraded U.S. debt to negative from stable. Yes, the raters who blessed virtually every toxic waste subprime security they saw with AAA ratings now see problems with sovereign government debt.
