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A comment on The horrifying AAA debt-issuance chart. Parent comment

Re:The horrifying AAA debt-issuance chart by phillmv on Friday July 15, 2011 @04:40PM (#2768998)
Right. I think that overall that's correct - for all intents and purposes it's effectively impossible for the US Treasury to run out of dollars. But the way the incentives for agencies are set up makes me think we're begging to be lied to.

Mind you, despite all this you can have a serious news piece of "someone from Moody's" claiming that they might be forced to lower the US' rating http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14142621 - which frankly just sounds all kinds of ridiculous.

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Re:The horrifying AAA debt-issuance chart by mdda on Friday July 15, 2011 @08:38PM (#2769710)
Why ridiculous? The treasury cannot, by law, issue more than a certain amount of debt. The politicians may change the law - but that's a vote that's yet to have been taken. Once upon a time, it would have been unthinkable for Japan to have had a lower credit rating than AAA.

Also, the US owes money in currencies other than $, which the Treasury doesn't have the power to print.

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