Moody's suggests U.S. eliminates debt ceiling

Source: Reuters

NEW YORK, July 18 (Reuters) - Ratings agency Moody's on Monday suggested the United States should eliminate its statutory limit on government debt to reduce uncertainty among bond holders.

The United States is one of the few countries where Congress sets a ceiling on government debt, which creates "periodic uncertainty" over the government's ability to meet its obligations, Moody's said in a report.

"We would reduce our assessment of event risk if the government changed its framework for managing government debt to lessen or eliminate that uncertainty," Moody's analyst Steven Hess wrote in the report.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/18/usa-debt-moodys-idUSN1E76H00620110718

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I would normally say this has no chance. It would help President Obama and Republicans are trying to avoid doing that at all cost. Bit it would also help the markets. So which do Republicans love more- the stock market, or bashing Obama? I'm honestly not sure,,,

Our out of control spending leaves us no alternative at this but to raise debt ceiling, but that is not the concern of a rating agency.

... is it out of control? We have no power over it? Just OUTTA CONTROL!!!!

We could stop making planes to fight the USSR, or something like that, y'know....

ability to repay, and willingness to do so. Removing the debt limit removes a significant barrier to the second of these items, although as you point out it has little to do (either way) with our ability to pay.

I think it's great. Of course there is a political farce going on, but in the end the population right now is aware that we are spending ourselves into oblivion and something needs to be done. If not for the debt ceiling, this would not have happened.

The claim that we are "spending ourselves into oblivion" is a right-wing lie. The principal problem is the Bush tax cuts. As for spending, Obama engineered a temporary spending increase for the stimulus package, which saved a couple million jobs. At this point, higher spending is largely the result of our imperialistic wars, plus the automatic increase that a bad economy brings about in needs-based programs like Medicaid.

yes its not so much the spending as it is the tax cuts.. and i agree about the military spending. but, we still can not continue to pile on debt like this.. we can't.

The rating agency that rated all that sub prime crap as triple A.

It think we could reduce uncertainty by bringing jobs back too but I don't see Moody pushing for that.

What a scam.

...$840 trillion. We all know it will never be repaid in full at this point anyhow.

We can always print money which makes the debt ceiling pointless.

in it's desperate struggle to avoid responsibility for the mis-governance of the country.

They were selling ratings. Giving triple AAA rating to banksters' toxic junk. Warren Buffet needs to be investigated.

they're spot on on this call. the entire debt ceiling concept is idiotic and should be done away with.

if congress doesn't want to borrow that much, it should address it in the normal budget process.

This is Moody's area of expertise; and more borrowing by an overburdened debtor does not increase the creditworthiness of its debts; and Moody;s executives should be in jail, not purporting to dictate policy. S

o, the threat of downgrading our rating, following by this seems suspect.

when the alternative is a reckless, voluntary and premature default.

Besides, I want him to adopt me. Even though he is stingy with his kids, hr does give them jobs in his foundations.

we rack up whatever debt we want until we get to the current arbitrary ceiling then we vote to raise it.

Repeat ad infinitum. It's never once stopped us from incurring more debt so it is pointless.

I agree that spending should be addressed during the normal budget process. And it's better to just use debt as a percentage of GDP as an indicator rather than a ceiling which has been constantly raised anyways. What we have going on now is unacceptable and it's incredible to hear of default being considered as a response to the deficit - all to avoid raising taxes on those who will hardly be impacted by it. Complete insanity. It makes the country look like a banana republic. Teabaggers and republicans in general are very immature, petty, and selfish so I'm certain they'd rather see Obama fail, nation be damned.

the only thing backing our currency is faith in our government, our system, and our way of life. removing the debt limit would send a message which would undermine that faith imo. How much faith would you have in a government that can't pay its bills without borrowing or printing trillions of dollars?

have admitted that on tv when an interviewer does his or her job well. Then, they backpedal to, "Yes, but August 2 is not a real deadline.

policy to Congress, esp. after threatening to downrate us?

This is close to blackmail, regardless whether Moody;s is right or not. They have no business, pardon the pun, doing this. They need to butt out.

I wonder if this might not be a problem in that it is deregulating another area of business. Are we capable of regulating ourselves?

"Americans suggest the US eliminates Moody's" }(

What is the point of having it?

Serious question.