Soaring US debt may start to overwhelm America’s ‘exorbitant privilege’

• Moody's added to the growing list of US debt warnings and appeared to inch closer to a downgrade in a recent report that sounded the alarm on the deteriorating fiscal situation. The ratings agency said America's AAA grade increasingly relies on "the unique and central roles of the dollar and Treasury bond market in global finance," but soaring debt and deficits are offsetting those advantages.

America has long enjoyed the "exorbitant privilege" of the dollar's status as the global reserve currency...