The U.S. debt crisis is worse than you think

Major firms are sounding the alarm on America's growing debt problem with Moody's recently downgrading the country's credit rating. Brett Ewing, chief market strategist at First Franklin Financial Services, joined TheStreet to break down just how serious the problem is and what it could mean for everyday Americans.

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Full Video Transcript Below:

BRETT EWING: Well, I think everyone sees that it's quite a big problem. We're sitting around $40 trillion in debt, and we're running close to a 7% deficit right now. And some big, some big issues need to be dealt with in order to get that back, probably to 3% which I think would be the goal over the next three to four years.

We still have a lot of room to work with to get that under control over the next decade. And there's some major things that can be done here in the short run. Wasteful spending cut out. But some of the big consequences of not getting a handle on this and continuing to run a 7% deficit would be further downgrades in a credit rating, potentially higher yield, much higher yields. And that would significantly eat up into the tax revenue that's already coming in. And it's already having a major impact.