This is a timely reminder of the seriousness of America’s fiscal issues, for the country and for the rest of the world.
The continued failure to come up with a credible medium-term fiscal reform program would increase borrowing costs for all segments of US society, thereby undermining investment, employment and growth. It would also curtail foreigners’ appetite to add to their already substantial holdings of US assets. And it would weaken the dollar.
The US also risks eroding its standing at the core of the global monetary system.
Of what use are debt ceilings if they are always raised? If the consequences of never raising it are so catastrophic that it must always be raised then we should do away with it entirely.