As politicians fight over the federal debt ceiling, Americans could start feeling the consequences of Congressional gridlock even before that limit is hit.
Moody's Investors Service warned on Thursday that if lawmakers have not made progress in negotiations to raise the debt limit by mid-July, the ratings agency plans to reassess the nation's sterling credit rating for a possible downgrade. The warning, coming after Standard & Poor's lowered its outlook on U.S. debt to "negative" in April, underscores that the current political stalemate in Washington has already begun to dampen the nation's economic prospects.
A downgrade from Moody's on U.S. debt, or even the imminent threat of one, could itself begin to choke the economic processes that still have not fully recovered from the Great Recession. It would imply that a credit default is possible, likely causing yields on Treasury debt to rise and pushing up interest rates across the board.
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