Standard & Poor's made a tiny $2 trillion mistake when rating the US economy

[HappySqurriel]

enrageorange said:

HappySqurriel said:
The United States federal government is like a household that earns $60,000 per year, while spending $90,000 per year, and has a net debt of $300,000 ...

Regardless of the projections of where they will be a decade from now, the United States federal government's bonds are not a AAA investment; and I would argue AA+ is an optimistically high rating.

useless comparision. We can argue all day about the state of the economy, debt, etc. but the S&P is suppose to rate governments based on their likelyhood of paying off the interest on their debt in the near future, and there is a 100% chance the USA will do so which investors see despite the absurd S&P downgrade as they have been swarming towards buying US bonds despite the downgrade when the stock market sharply fell the past few days.

What will the dollar they pay off this debt be worth though?

Being that the US dollar has lost substantial value over the past 10 years and is acting in a way that will accelerate the devaluing of the dollar, do you really believe that their bonds should be AAA rated? Would you say that an investment where you're probably going to lose 50% to 75% of its value over its term was a good investment, so why is a 10 year treasury that will be paid off in dollars that have the purchasing power of $0.25 to $0.50 a good investment?