Sunday, May 17, 2009

Walker: Entitlements put America’s triple A rating is at risk

Former GAO head David Walker writes in the Financial Times that a day of reckoning on entitlements may be closer than it seems, as credit markets won't continue to treat U.S. Treasury bonds as riskless when the government continues to pile up unpayable pension and health care debts:

How can one justify bestowing a triple A rating on an entity with an accumulated negative net worth of more than $11,000bn (€8,000bn, £7,000bn) and additional off-balance sheet obligations of $45,000bn? An entity that is set to run a $1,800bn-plus deficit for the current year and trillion dollar-plus deficits for years to come?

Click here to read the whole article.

2 comments:

JG said...

S&P has just put Britain's AAA credit rating on downgrade watch because of its surging national debt.

But you'd have to be crazy to think that could happen here.

Or not.

Andrew G. Biggs said...

Exactly.