Economics Matters with Laurence Kotlikoff18 Sep 2025

David Levey, former Head of Moody's Sovereign Risk Rating Team, Discusses U.S. Fiscal Insolvency

Back in May, Moody's joined the other two major U.S. debt-rating companies, S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Group, in downgrading US government debt. No surprise. Federal debt was close to 30 percent of GDP a quarter Century back. Today it's close to 100 percent and projected to exceed 150 percent by mid Century. No one is better positioned to discuss our nation's fiscal condition than David Levey.

David spent almost 19 years servicing as Managing Director and Co-Head of the Sovereign Ratings Unit of Moody's Investors Service. Indeed, David is arguably the father of sovereign risk rating having developed country-credit analysis at Moody's. When David retired, he was credited by Moody's as having rated the official obligations of over 100 countries across the world. In addition, David has been involved in rating a host of foreign and domestic industry- and company-specific securities.

David holds a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago and a PhD in Economics from Harvard University. Before joining Moody's, he taught at Yale, the New School for Social Research, and Wayne State University. He also served as Senior Economics Writer for BusinessWeek, Country Risk Manager for Wells Fargo, and President of his own risk-evaluation consulting company.

David's had a long career sizing up failing states. The US is not a failing state, but is, it seems, working overtime to join that club. Please listen as one of our few remaining grownups in the room explains what our politicians know, but won't say -- our country is going broke hand over fist, with serious implications for how we all should you invest your money.

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