among neil: if you are a ratings agency s&p and moody s, is this going to be any more calming or is it going to have you pull the trigger and downgrade now? i think when you have a plan. at least the idea of a couple of concrete plans the harry reid plan, the boehner plan in the house that might calm people down that is a question that some have been asking. the republican freshman from michigan raised that point. he said what if we have a plan, we pass something and get downgraded any way? that was something we heard last week from the rating agencies people. huizenga says we don t want the good to be the enemy of the perfect. or the perfect to be the enemy of the god. the question is, is this good enough? further s in good enough for the ratings agencies. neil: thank you.
more pressure, as a washington-watcher and right there, so involved in do you think the president is to get it done and get it right or speaker boehner who seems to be in the hot seat as well. chris: i think they both are. the real danger is that the markets have been saying, we expect a deal, the ratings agencies, especially standard and poors have talked about wanting to see something this weekend, and, you know, boehner went on the record, yesterday and in a conference call that s republicans, talking and you hear it again, about wanting something this afternoon, and, if you get a plan either boehner goes goes it alone and presents the plan, that, you know, if it doesn t have any buy in from democrats and they in effect say they will block it and, or there is no plan at all there s a possibility when the markets i m no expert, but when the markets open tonight, monday morning, in asia, and, then really tomorrow, monday, here in the u.s., i think, you know, the real possibility
during the financial crisis, lehman brothers, these were all highly rated instruments by the ratings agencies. until the moment when investors realized they were wrong. they were highly rated until they weren t. exactly. so what we have to worry about, i think as mary said, what investors think and are they satisfied that the u.s. is going to pay its debts and it s still the greatest credit in the world and a judgment much bigger and important than the ratings agency said. this is a structural problem, it s not something you paper over. that s how we like greece. we re not like greece yet and as kim said this is going to take time. the question the markets will be looking at. is there any capacity for the political system to face the structural problem? and i think that will depend a lot how this is handled politically by the republicans. steve, treasury secretary geithner should be right in the middle of this. is he? well, you know, i think he s acted incredibly
history, enron, worldcom. mortgage-backed securities during the financial crisis, lehman brothers, these were all highly rated instruments by the ratings agencies. until the moment when investors realized they were wrong. they were highly rated until they weren t. exactly. so what we have to worry about, i think as mary said, what investors think and are they satisfied that the u.s. is going to pay its debts and it s still the greatest credit in the world and a judgment much bigger and important than the ratings agency said. this is a structural problem, it s not something you paper over. that s how we like greece. we re not like greece yet and as kim said this is going to take time. the question the markets will be looking at. is there any capacity for the political system to face the structural problem? and i think that will depend a lot how this is handled politically by the republicans. steve, treasury secretary geithner should be right in
months. the cloud of default over this fragile economy is going to lead to a downgrade by the ratings agencies. interest rates hikes up, the consumer runs and hides and more job loss and serious problems for our economy and we ll see what happens to the markets now and if that s a compelling message from the democrats, enough to scare speaker boehner back to the table to a long-term deal. what he s saying is, i have the short-term deal in my pocket and it will will come together in the next four days and sick of having the discussions with the white house where they move the goal post. chris: what do you think happens, bill? because boehner said one thing, one point and another thing at another point. do you think that he is prepared to just have the outs pass the short-term deal and kick the can down the road and raise the debt ceiling into early next year with the idea of a commission to look at it? and pass a, here is a plan to keep you out of default for six months and dare the