The gold-plated credit rating of the United States — an article of faith across America and, indeed, around the world — may be at risk in coming years as the nation copes with growing debt.
Moody’s Investors Service on Monday gave this advisory — a reminder that even Aaa-rated US Treasury bonds, supposedly the safest of safe investments, could be downgraded one day if Washington failed to manage federal debt.
Moody’s said the United States and other major Western nations, particularly Britain, have moved “substantially” closer to losing their gilt-edged ratings. The ratings are “stable,” but “their ‘distance-to-downgrade’ has substantially diminished,” it said.
Last May, Moody’s cut Japan’s Aaa rating to Aa2, as the market grew increasingly uneasy with Japan’s debt burden. German and French debt too are fragile, the agency said in its assessment.