Basically the problem was using the threat of default of the country and hold hostage the country to gain political points, while disregarding the potential ramifications of their actions.

By the way, 1 trillion evaporated today in the stock:

http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/08/markets/stock-market-loss/index.htm?source=cnn_bin&hpt=hp_bn3

As of now, the Nikkei is down 400 points.

I vaguely remembered someone warned us about all this but some probably thought it was and may still is just fiction.