Tic, Tic, Tic…that’s the sound of your world as you know it running out.

Credit rating agencies moved closer to an unprecedented downgrade of the U.S. government's debt amid deteriorating talks in Washington, with President Barack Obama abruptly walking out of a key meeting Wednesday with Republicans seeking a deal to raise the federal borrowing limit.
Moody's Investors Service said it was reviewing the government's top Aaa bond rating for a possible downgrade, citing the "rising possibility" that the government's $14.29 trillion borrowing limit won't be raised soon enough to prevent the U.S. from running out of money to pay its bills.

The U.S., rated Aaa since 1917, was put on review for the first time since 1995 on concern the debt threshold will not be raised in time to prevent a missed payment of interest or principal on outstanding bonds and notes even though the risk remains low, Moody’s said in a statement yesterday. The rating would likely be reduced to the Aa range and there is no assurance that Moody’s would return its top rating even if a default is quickly cured.

“It’s obviously very serious in so many different ways,” said James Caron, head of U.S. interest-rate strategy at Morgan Stanley in New York, one of 20 primary dealers that trade bonds with the Federal Reserve. “Most people still believe there will be some type of an agreement struck to avoid all this stuff, and that’s what the market’s banking on.”

The Aaa ratings of financial institutions directly linked to the U.S. government, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Banks, and the Federal Farm Credit Banks, were also put on review for cuts, Moody’s said. It also placed 7,000 municipal ratings on review for possible downgrade.

“What we’re looking for is a raising of the limit. It doesn’t matter the process that they get there,” Steven Hess, the senior credit officer at Moody’s in New York, said in a telephone interview.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell proposed a “last choice option” on July 12 that effectively would grant Obama power to raise the debt limit in installments. McConnell’s plan would let the president raise the limit in three stages unless Congress disapproves by a two-thirds majority, while Obama would also be required to propose offsetting spending cuts. The spending reductions would be advisory, and the debt-ceiling increase would occur regardless of whether lawmakers enact the cuts.

S&P would lower its sovereign top-level AAA ranking to D, the last rung on its scale, if the U.S. can’t make its payments because of a failure to raise the debt ceiling, John Chambers, chairman of the sovereign rating committee, said June 30.

Mr. President it is in the darkest hours that you were voted into office to lead. Senator McConnell has given you the path to provide the leadership necessary for an unruly Congress. President’s Reagan, Clinton and Kennedy would not have blinked an eye. The course is clear.