The debt-ceiling is just as much the debt-roof from which the US will need to climb down from.

Sir, Sir Samuel Brittan should really be commended for reminding us of what is also at stake when stating “The recent fiscal policy deadlocks we have seen in Washington are a price worth paying for proper checks and balances”, “A moderate outlook with the chance of a new crisis” October 18.

In many languages there is just one word for the ceiling and the roof, in Spanish “techo”. And that is why it might be so difficult to translate the nuances of a debate about the goodies of increasing a debt-ceiling, which is able to leave so much aside of the badies of raising a debt-roof, that from which the US, someday, sooner or later, will need to come down from.

And Edward Luce, in “It is stupid to believe that the Tea Party has no brain”, October 21 asks: “Can there be anything more idiotic than flirting with a voluntary sovereign default?” As a Latin American I would have to answer “Yes!” to that. And that would be flirting with an involuntary sovereign default.