Beat Up Your Favorite News Reporter, What Would It Mean for the U.S. to be Unable to Pay Its Debt?

Okay boys and girls, this stuff about a credit downgrade has gone far enough. We know that all the important people in Washington and on Wall Street are warning us about the possibility that the credit rating agencies will downgrade the U.S. government if we don't reduce the debt to their standards. But what could this possibly mean?

The U.S. debt is denominated in dollars. The government issues dollars. Do Moody's and Standard and Poor's think that there will be some point in the future...