Contributed by: filbert Friday, January 11 2008 @ 05:41 PM CST
That would be the credit rating of the U.S. Government – – you know, that one with all of the “rock-solid, guaranteed Treasury Bonds?”
Why is that, you ask?
Because we’re mindlessly pouring money down the trough of entitlement programs, according to the report in Financial Times[*1] :
In its annual report on the US, Moody’s signalled increased concern that rapid rises in Medicare and Medicaid – the government-funded healthcare programmes for the old and the poor – would “cause major fiscal pressures” in years to come.
Unlike Moody’s previous assessment of US government debt in 2005, Thursday’s report specifically links rises in healthcare and social security spending to the credit rating.
“The combination of the medical programmes and social security is the most important threat to the triple-A rating over the long term,” it said.
Steven Hess, Moody’s lead analyst for the US, told the Financial Times that in order to protect the country’s top rating, future administrations would have to rein in healthcare and social security costs.
“If no policy changes are made, in 10 years from now we would have to look very seriously at whether the US is still a triple-A credit,” he said.