Moneybox

Fitch Puts U.S. on Downgrade Watch

The bond rating service Fitch just announced that America’s sovereign debt is being put on “downgrade watch” and said we might lose our AAA rating.

You should not put great stock in sovereign debt ratings, especially for large well-known and well-covered countries like the United States of America. There’s no actual informational content in this action beyond the obvious—the apparent institutionalization of Republicans using the debt ceiling as leverage for policy concessions has made American debt riskier than it should be—but it’s a nice symbolic moment for this week of political and economic crisis.