The global impact of the American debt crisis – and the likelihood of permanent damage to American interests – are already visible to Senator John Kerry (D-MA) from his perch as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Indeed he is not only seeing but hearing those effects.

“The Chinese are laughing all the way to the bank,” said the former Democratic presidential nominee, because a downgrading of US Treasury securities will mean enormous and completely unnecessary increases in our interest payments to the nation’s largest creditor – and our most important competitor in the international arena.