Teathe american constitution Vests legislative power in Congress. In the days to come the body politic can lay claim to a spiritual power of its own: that of turning the completely unimaginable into hard reality. By Failed to raise US debt limit In time, Congress could have run the country on its own first sovereign default in modern history. Falling stock markets, rising unemployment, panic in the global economy – all of these are within the realm of possibility.
way to a default is clear. The US has roughly until June 1 to raise its debt ceiling – the politically set cap on total gross federal borrowing, currently at $31.4trn – or it will run out of cash to meet all its obligations, From paying military pay to sending checks to pensioners and paying interest on bonds.
The country has faced such deadlines in the past, leading observers to believe that it will once again raise its debt limit at the last minute. But its politicians are more furious than in previous standoffs. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, is pushing for the spending cuts he needs to hold together his narrow, fractious majority. Joe Biden, for his part, could lose the support of progressive Democrats if he is seen as capitulating to Republican demands.
Treasury is working with the Federal Reserve to have a fallback plan if Congress doesn’t raise the debt limit. Known as “payment priority,” this would prevent default by paying interest on the bond and deducting even more from other obligations. Yet putting bondholders ahead of pensioners and soldiers would be distasteful, and could prove untenable. In addition, prioritization will depend on the continued success of regular auctions to replace maturing Treasury bonds. There is no guarantee that investors will trust such a dysfunctional government. With each passing day, a US default would appear as a more serious risk.
Default can come in two forms: a short crisis or a long crisis. Although the consequences of both would be dire, the latter would be far worse. Either way, the Fed will have a key role in containing the fallout; However, this important role will be one of damage-limitation. Every market and economy around the world will feel the pain, regardless of the central bank’s actions.
The US is home to the world’s largest sovereign debt market: with $25 trillion in bonds in public hands, it accounts for nearly one-third of the global total. Treasuries are viewed as the ultimate risk-free asset – offering a guaranteed return to corporate cash managers, governments elsewhere and investors large and small – and as a baseline for pricing other financial instruments. They are the basis of daily cash flow. Short-term “repo” lending in the US, which is worth about $4 trillion and a lifeblood for global financial markets, is largely driven by using Treasuries as collateral. All this will come under suspicion.
By definition, a default would initially be a short-lived interrupt. A Fed official says it would be like a liquidity crisis. Assume the government defaults on bills and bonds due after the “X-date”, when it runs out of cash (this is estimated by the Treasury to be June 1, if not a little after that, on tax receipts) depends on). Demand for loans with later maturities may still remain stagnant on the assumption that Congress will soon come to its senses. A preview of the deviation can already be seen. Treasury bills due in June currently have an annualized yield of about 5.5%; In August they are closer to 5%. In the event of a default, this difference can grow rapidly.
To begin with, the Fed will treat defaulted securities like normal securities, accepting them as collateral for central-bank loans and potentially even buying them outright. In effect, the Fed will replace bad debt with good debt, operating on the assumption that the government will make payments on defaulted securities with some delay. Although Fed Chairman Jerome Powell described such moves as “disgusting” in 2013, he also said that he would accept them “under certain circumstances”. The Fed is wary of inserting itself into the center of a political controversy and taking actions that break down the wall between fiscal and monetary policies, but its desire to prevent financial chaos will almost certainly outweigh these concerns.
However, the Fed’s response would create a paradox. To the extent that central bank actions succeed in stabilizing markets, the need for compromise by politicians will be reduced. Furthermore, running a financial system based on partially defaulted securities will present challenges. FedWire, the settlement system for Treasuries, is programmed to make bills disappear after their maturity date has passed. Treasury has said it will intervene to extend the operational maturity of defaulted bills to ensure they remain transferable. Yet it is easy to imagine that such a jury-rigged system would eventually break down. At a minimum, investors will demand higher interest rates to offset risk aversion, leading to a tightening of credit conditions across global markets.
However it works, the US would already be in the grip of extreme fiscal austerity. According to analysts at the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, the government will be unable to borrow more money, meaning it will have to cut spending by the difference between current tax revenue and expenditure – an overnight reduction of around 25%. Moody’s Analytics, a research organisation, estimates that in the immediate aftermath of the default, the US economy will shrink by about 1% and its unemployment rate will rise from 3.4% to 5%, putting about 1.5m people out of work.
In the short term, Congress responds by raising the debt ceiling, which causes the markets to recover. A default that lasts a few days would be a black eye for America’s reputation and would probably induce a recession. Yet with skillful management, this won’t be the stuff of nightmare.
A longer default would be more dangerous. Mark Zandi of Moody’s calls it “potential”.tarp moment”, referring to the autumn of 2008 when Congress initially failed to pass a distressed asset relief program to bail out banks, prompting global markets to crash. Persistent failure to lift can have a similar effect.
The Council of Economic Advisers, a White House agency, estimated that the stock market would drop 45% in the first few months after the breach. Moody’s forecast it would fall to around 20%, and unemployment would rise by five percentage points, which would mean somewhere in the region of 8m Americans would lose their jobs. The government, constrained by the debt ceiling, would be unable to respond to the downturn with fiscal stimulus, leading to a deeper recession.
An avalanche of credit downgrades will add to these troubles. In 2011, during the last debt-limit impasse, Standard & Poor’s, a rating agency, downgraded the US rating to one notch from its top. AAA rating. Post default, rating agencies will be under immense pressure to follow suit. This can lead to a nasty chain reaction. Institutions backstopped by the US government, such as Fannie Mae, an important source of mortgage finance, would also be downgraded, translating into higher mortgage rates and undermining the all-important asset sector. Yields on corporate bonds will rise as investors are strapped for cash. Banks will take back their loans. Panic will spread.
There will also be bizarre, unexpected twists. Generally, the currencies of the defaulting countries are badly affected. In case of a US breach, investors may initially flock to the dollar, viewing it as a haven during a crisis, as it usually is. Within the US, people may turn to deposits in larger-than-failing banks, trusting that the Fed will stand behind them come what may. But any sign of resilience will carry an almighty warning: America may have violated the trust the world has long placed in it. Questions about alternatives to the dollar and the US financial system will be urgent. Trust, once destroyed cannot be easily restored.
