WHAT IF THE U.S. DEFAULTED?

if our credit rating get's worse, we pay higher interest rates which makes our debt even worse. it's unsustainable as is.

we, the us of a, and the world go broke. it won't happen over night. there will be wide fluctuations in world markets as everyone try's to figure out what's up. then inflation really starts up big time. oil prices soar. massive unemployment.

we and the world try and stabalize things but printing money doesnt work anymore. it's worthless...

finally, somebody starts a big war and new spirits of nationalism take hold. we/they slaughter half the worlds population and whoever is left standing wins! (that's how these things always end)

it's not about loaning money to other countries. it's all about selling US treasury bills, (an obligation to pay at a later date with interest), for cash now which we use to finance our government payments. SS, medicare, defense, etc....

if we, (the us of a), defaults on those obligations, it's a big deal. interest rates spike and one thing leads to another including hyper inflation and bad unemployment. everything stops.

the us of a is not greece. we are still the big economic driver of the worlds economy. IF we collapse, EVERYBODY, and i mean EVERYBODY, falls with us.

If the US defaulted on its debt then the money of that country, which it would have to use to pay off its debt would also be worthless. The money would be worthless because the promises to pay its debts would be worthless. Overnight savings accounts with thousands and millions of dollars would be worthless. Overnight everybody in the US would be poor. Economic collapse would ensue. Over the entire world. Don't believe those who say we could survive it. It would be a disaster.

And what about those who say we could just pay the interest on the National Debt and sprinkle the rest over other projects. Well that would cause mass unemployment because millions of federal employees wouldn't get paid either. Families would have to go on welfare and we'd have a worse recession. Spending would stop, banks would stop lending and that would lead to collapse. It just wouldn't work the way the Teapublicans say it would.

HIstory has shown repeatedly that countries that simply print money to pay for "whatever" without a debt limit often collapse their economy.

Our country, goes through this ceremony of raising the debt limit over and over, but the concept is important. Congress has to raise the debt limit by approving, presumably for good reasons. It has to allow the government to borrow more money. It can't just go out and borrow 100 Trillion dollars if it feels like it and can some how get people to lend it to them.

Higher interest rates. Unless its a bad default then the US will break into ethnic fighting like that in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union.

Economy fails like Greece. They past their debt limit and their debt is higher than GDP. See you on August 3rd if you don't believe me.

Obama has escalated his rhetoric with every crisis he has created by his inaction. Now that he has labeled this latest one "Armageddon", what will he call his next one? Super Destructo H-Bomb Plague Death?

The US has defaulted before, so while it's not good, it's not the chicken little scenario we're being fed either.

No big whoop, but with anything less than AAA rating you'll end up paying trillions of $$$ more in interest.