S & P: America Could Default Even if Debt Ceiling is Raised

As I noted yesterday, America could default even if the debt ceiling is raised.

One of the big, government-sponsored American rating agencies has just confirmed my post.

Specifically, Standard & Poor’s announced today:

[We're putting U.S. debt on] CreditWatch with negative implications … owing to the dynamics of the political debate on the debt ceiling, there is at least a one-in-two likelihood that we could lower the long-term rating on the U.S. within the next 90 days ….

The political debate about the U.S.’ fiscal stance and the related issue of the U.S. government debt ceiling has, in our view, only become more entangled.

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We may lower the long-term rating on the U.S. by one or more notches into the ‘AA’ category in the next three months, if we conclude that Congress and the Administration have not achieved a credible solution to the rising U.S. government debt burden and are not likely to achieve one in the foreseeable future.