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.

If not the dollar, then no other fiat currency either

Most of the world´s concern with the dollar is in fact not with the dollar itself but more of the “if not the dollar then what?” type, since, if looking at the forest and not the trees, makes it clear that no country´s fiat money stands a chance to survive a dollar failure. That is how globalized we have become… that is why some non US are even toying with the notion of supporting a tea party, no matter how doubly distant they feel from some of those partying there … no matter they serve corn on the cob instead of cucumber sandwiches… and others buy gold.

Let us suppose the US officially presented to the world the possibility of a 40% haircut on its debt. Would that be the same as an Argentinean haircut? No way José, since the day after the US would again find unwilling willing takers of US debt, and at quite low rates, because it would think that the day after the US imposed some debt ceiling that really became a real roof.

China, India? Good luck Warren Buffett, but we do not have all that much money to afford the luxury of trying.

In truth, if we would still use fiat money, then the Dollar II would still be better positioned than all other.

There should be a growth market in tea-parties.

Sir Gillian Tett is too forgiving when she describes as a “perverse situation” that “the Europeans banks are now net sellers of insurance against the chance of their own governments going into default – even though those same banks are implicitly backed by those governments”, “CDS market needs reform if more drama is to be avoided” December 18.

It is worse than so, it goes to the heart of what could be deemed to be an immense collusion of interests between big governments and big finance, which starts with the fact that banks in many countries, courtesy of the regulators, are required to hold zero percent in capital when lending to the government and therefore leveraging even more its power.

That an ordinary citizen’s borrowing gives cause for an 8 percent or more capital requirement for banks while the same lending to the governments cause a zero requirement must be a dream come true for any government. There seems to be a growth market in tea-parties all around the globe.