The US debt problem is not just a fiscal matter, but a political one.
FORBES: Is US Debt Problem As Big As The 1990s Latin America Crisis?
China is the biggest holder of US debt outside of US fixed income investors.
Every penny of US debt is owed in a currency we are legally permitted to print.
Boehner said months ago that defaulting on US debt was not going to happen.
There's more than enough money coming into the federal coffers to pay US debt interest.
Credit agencies will downgrade the US debt rating, which will challenge the foreign owners of our debt.
And the situation has led to increasing anxiety among the foreign buyers of US debt, including China.
Recent articles featured in The Daily Reckoning include the impact of quantitative easing and US debt.
See: Is US Debt Problem as Big as 1990s Latin America Crisis?
Bernanke was unable to avoid expressing his concerns about the US debt ceiling at his free-for-all question period yesterday.
Of course, one way the US Congress could stop this is by forcing a default on the US debt.
The Federal Reserve acquired most of this US debt by simply creating dollars.
However, while US debt generates endless consternation and controversy, it seems like Japan may be able to get away with it.
FORBES: Japan's New Fiscal Policy Explained And Why It Matters
However, some analysts said with debt woes across much of the developed world, US debt remained an attractive option for investors.
At their most severe, these would prohibit companies owned by Chinese nationals from raising funds on US debt or equity markets.
And barring a catastrophe, like a forced default on US debt, in another year or so we should be back, big time.
FORBES: US Oil Industry Leads the Way in Extracting Hard-to-Get Crude; Steel to Benefit
From the chart guys at Business Insider, this is the interest paid on US debt to banks and foreign holders of government bonds.
While the market is not pricing in a default on US debt obligations, it is definitely pricing in the likelihood of a downgrade.
At the White House on Wednesday, spokesman Jay Carney warned time was quickly running out to reach a compromise on the US debt limit.
Ironically, the weak US debt position has not scared investors away.
Investors sell European bonds when American credit agencies downgrade the debt of the region, but they end up buying American bonds when the same agencies downgrade US debt.
FORBES: Two Risky and Two Safe Investments for your Portfolio
Nonetheless, many strategists warn that the Vix is unreasonably subdued, given the still-cloudy outlook for the US debt ceiling negotiations and the prospect of continued stresses in Europe.
In world markets, US debt is essentially the gold standard.
FORBES: G-7 To Meet On Sovereign Debt Crisis; This Could Get Ugly
Both Democrats and Republicans agreed to the sequester in 2011 as part of a bill to raise the US debt ceiling - the legal limit the government can borrow.
This compares well not only to European debt levels of well over 100 percent of GDP but to the US debt level which stands at 98 percent of GDP.
If the parties fail to compromise in time thereby allowing the US to default on its obligations, US debt could be downgraded and that would cause markets to tumble systematically.
The cuts were created in negotiations over a 2011 bill that raised the US debt ceiling, the legal limit that America is allowed to borrow to fund its budget deficit.
The dual Euro and US debt crises have been dominating the market action for at least the past several weeks, but now the Eurozone countries appear to have taken definitive action.
FORBES: The Week Ahead: For Stocks, The Debt Ceiling's the Limit
The error affected under 1% of the US debt being paid at the time, but interest rates on short term bonds rose nearly 1% in a short period because of that error.
应用推荐