News In Brief

U.S. downgrade could become a global problem

Kai Ryssdal Jul 27, 2011

This final note today, just ’cause we haven’t been spending enough time on the debt debacle.

Got this from Tyler Cowen’s blog, Marginal Revolution, today. Talking about the Triple A credit rating American debt has. We’ve got a lot of it. The U.S. Department of Treasury issues 59 percent of all — as in worldwide — all the triple A sovereign debt that’s out there. Nobody else is even close. Germany’s next at 10 percent; France at 9; the U.K. at 8 percent.

One conclusion, then? If that triple A goes away, it’s a big fat global economy problem.

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