'Criminal negligence': The best comments on the US debt crisis

Today’s papers are jam-packed with analysis and comment on the US and European debt crises. Here's the best of it...

A lack of trust in sovereign debt is a good thing

Jeremy Warner at the Telegraph

"If even US Treasuries are now regarded as a credit risk, is there anything left at all in the world of money that can be trusted?

"The answer to this question is almost certainly no, but far from being a calamitous conclusion to reach, this might be viewed as a positive development which will in time restore market disciplines to a global monetary system which became based on make believe.

"In fact, the idea of the sovereign as a ‘risk free asset' is a comparatively recent development which has no basis in historical experience."

The debt deal is a sideshow to America's real peril

Martin Sandbu at the Financial Times

"The US economy grew by 3% in 2010. In the first two quarters of 2011, however, the average annualised pace of growth was only 0.8%.

"Six months of normal growth would have created enough value to pay for all the spending Congress has now agreed to cut.

"This unrealised value will now benefit no one. For politicians instead to pour their energy into unnecessary debt-ceiling negotiations comes close to criminal negligence."

We need Euro bonds now

Nils Pratley at the Guardian

"The only sure-fire solution to the sovereign debt crisis is the issuance of commonly-guaranteed euro bonds, managed by a new eurozone treasury.

"The Brussels summit can be seen as an attempt to defer debate on that dangerous idea. It didn't work; the market, as predicted, is still asking awkward questions and still screaming to see the money.

"If the eurozone leaders are serious about fighting contagion, they will have to supply the answers; and soon."