Here is a clear example of why the US should not run ongoing debt

Who will buy them?

And if they sell them, so what?

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Was thinking the same thing.

...And that we are always looking for a good deal on buying back OUR assets!

...And if they are proven responsible for the attacks here we ought to be taking our assets backs either way.

...And there's probably little they can do about.

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I think the implied threat is selling them to Russia or China.

 

And again I ask, so?

Instead of paying interest to the Saudis we pay it to someone else.

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You asked, "And if they sell them, so what?"

So, in selling our debt to others the Saudis are then able to escape being held financially responsible, correct? Isn't that the idea? No problem with that?

 

Yes I have a problem with not being able to freeze those payments to the Saudis if their government is found to be directly culpable for 911.

However, the OP was about why the US should not run ongoing debt. A couple of points.

1.If the Saudis did not hold this debt we would have no leverage over them in this investigation.

2. The debt is already out there. If the Saudis sell it to someone else the US still has to pay it off.

I'm not seeing the point of the OP.

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Hmm, perhaps we should be upfront and direct and could declare that we perceive the selling of these debts as an attempt to escape responsibility should it found they are culpable and therefore stipulate that we intend to use any payments toward any debts currently held by the Saudis, should there be a judgement against the holders of these debts, that any new bearer of these debts should beware that any claim against these current debt holders will follow the debt and subsequent payment withholding will still be in effect regardless of the transfer. Should make any perspective buyer think twice...

Just a thought.

 

Discussion over.

 

Putting additional conditions on the payback of debt after its issuance would have disastrous effects on the US credit rating. Just a thought.

 

That is true and worth weighing in, although putting a freeze on a debt in the past hasn't seemed to have that effect. Perhaps this could be considered a preliminary freeze condition?

 

If the U.S. could do this quietly get this message across without other nations finding out about it, it would be worth doing, yes.

 

Sorry, you lost me on that one. The point of a "preliminary freeze condition" would be stop the Saudis from selling the debts, before the matters of responsibility are decided, because any perspective buyers knowing of the condition and not wanting to take the risk. So I don't see how there is any value toward stopping the Saudis from selling if other countries, perspective buyers don't know about it?

 

I meant to quietly inform prospective buyers, like Japan or China that if they buy these securities they will be subject to being frozen. Don't tell other nations like the European nations and require secrecy from the prospective buyers.

 

I guess this and a handful of other things explains why we didn't bomb Saudi Arabia and went after an Iraqi state that hadn't attacked us in NYC.

I wonder if another reason we attacked Shia Iraq was because Sunni Saudi Arabia threatened to sell our debt if we retaliated against them?