On Sat, 6 Aug 2011, Max Sawicky wrote:
> It's worth noting unless somebody already said this that Japan was rated
> lower than the U.S. but could also sell debt at lower interest rates.
That's true, but IIUC, the vast majority of Japanese debt is owned by Japanese who don't care what the rest of the world thinks. Whereas most US debt is owned by non USers who are comparison shopping. It's true that they too might not have that many options and might not ultimately care. But it seems like the two cases may have different dynamics.
Michael