Insuring against the possibility of a U.S. default is now pretty expensive

This final note today, a very brief word on the way out about credit default swaps. You’ll remember them from the financial crisis, basically buying insurance against the possibility of somebody defaulting.

Anyway, as just one example of how low U.S. debt is regarded by the market, it now costs about the same to insure Treasury bills against the possibility of default as it does to insure Russian government bonds. It’s actually cheaper to insure debt issued by Coca-Cola than it is to insure the full faith and credit of the United States.