Check out those unfunded liabilities! Holy cow!!

http://www.wtfnoway.com/

"If you spent $1 million a day since Jesus was born, you would have not spent $1 trillion by now...but ~$700 billion- same amount the banks got during bailout."

I know you don't want to politicize this (hence not in the politics forum), but I do like one conservative's comment on that page: "Raising the Debt Ceiling is kind of like increasing Blood Alcohol Levels to Solve Drunk Driving." We've got a problem. The first step has been accomplished.

The analogy would only work if inflation applied to alcohol - that over time people could drink more of it to be the same amount of drunk over time.

Of course, the US GDP is over $1Tn in a month and that of the world is more than that per week.

danivon wrote:The analogy would only work if inflation applied to alcohol - that over time people could drink more of it to be the same amount of drunk over time.

I think it works as an analogy because of our addiction to spending and borrowing. Just consider this: the "sane" approach the President is proposing is borrowing 1/6th of our current debt in less than 18 months.

It's no wonder Moody's et al want to downgrade our debt. That's just not "sane." Borrowing 40% of a budget is not rational. This is the addict pleading for one more rock. On that scale, it works.

I think Moodys are more concerned about the fact that the credit limit was reached in May and if a deal is not done soon to raise it there's a potential to default.

As a general guide, ratings agencies care less about the level of debt than they do about the risk of some of it not being repaid.

In fact, it's very hard to get a high credit rating if you don't have debts.

danivon wrote:I think Moodys are more concerned about the fact that the credit limit was reached in May and if a deal is not done soon to raise it there's a potential to default.

As a general guide, ratings agencies care less about the level of debt than they do about the risk of some of it not being repaid.

Um, right--like the two cannot be connected? Seriously, if a person were borrowing 43 cents of every dollar they spent, the credit spigot would get turned off. Our government just keeps on truckin'!

In fact, it's very hard to get a high credit rating if you don't have debts.

On the other hand, owing nothing means no interest payments. There's a crazy thought.