The cost of insuring against a US debt default is insane and everybody should be paying close attention to what that’s telling us.
The unthinkable is now thinkable.
While I personally consider a US debt default to be improbable – they always swerve close to the edge then veer away – it’s now a non-zero probability. That’s what the debt insurance (CDS on 1-year Treasury paper) is telling me.
So, what happens if the US defaults?
A lot of things, only one of them good.