Standard & Poor’s

U.S. downgrade a crossroads for S&P

The rating agency's move to downgrade U.S. debt could make it a leader among rating agencies or blow up in its face.

FORTUNE -- In the rating move heard 'round the world, Standard & Poor's lowered the credit rating of the United States, saying that the country could someday miss a debt payment due to its deeply divided government. The move not only creates a huge amount of uncertainty for investors MORE

Staring down a AA-rating

A deal was reached, but it didn't go far enough to satisfy S&P's original requirements. A debt downgrade still looks likely, but does it really matter?

FORTUNE -- The U.S. might have avoided a debt default and a government shutdown, but the deal Congress reached to raise the nation's $14.3 trillion debt limit does little to improve its long-term fiscal position. After weeks of political wrangling that culminated in a rushed MORE

5 states at risk in the debt ceiling debate

Moody's expects to downgrade five states if the debt ceiling isn't raised. How these states — most led by Republicans — became totally dependent on federal dollars.

FORTUNE – Tensions are boiling over in Washington as U.S. lawmakers negotiate a plan to raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit. With an Aug. 2 deadline fast approaching, the U.S. government is nowhere close to forging a deal -- an impasse that puts its MORE

Life after a debt downgrade: Clawing back to AAA

We know how the U.S. can lose its top-notch credit rating. The question is how do we restore it? The answer isn't so simple.

By Tory Newmyer, writer

FORTUNE -- It would be relatively easy for the U.S. to lose its prized AAA credit rating. All our policymakers need to do between now and Aug. 2 -- when the federal government reaches the end of its borrowing authority -- is nothing. At MORE

S&P: Why we downgraded our U.S. outlook

How does the rating agency decide when to downgrade its outlook for sovereign debt? It turns out that politics does influence the decision.

Nikola Swann knew that he would be thrust into the firestorm raging in Washington D.C. over America's growing debt burden.

Swann is the analyst at Standard & Poor's who monitors the United States for events that could threaten the country's status as a top-tier borrower. From his perch in MORE

A U.S. debt downgrade isn't the real problem

Standard & Poor's has a lot of people worried about the implications of a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating. The real worry is what our debt levels will do to the value of the dollar.

FORTUNE -- There's been a lot of hand-wringing and posturing over Standard & Poor's announcement that it has changed its outlook for the U.S. Treasury's long-term debt to "negative" for the first time since it MORE

Time to short the U.S. dollar?

Over the course of the next two months, there are several catalysts that are all set up to be negative for the U.S. dollar. And then there's the dismal deficit situation.

By Daryl Jones, Hedgeye

FORTUNE -- Call us lucky or smart, but we've had a pretty good run trading the U.S. dollar in the Hedgeye virtual portfolio. Prior to our initiation of another short position in the UUP early yesterday (the MORE

Let's try this again: Mortgage bond ratings return with scrutiny

Mortgage-backed securities are back, but Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch are approaching their job rating them with very different tactics.

The big three credit rating agencies are in trouble for not taking taking risk seriously enough when they examined bonds made from residential mortgages before the housing market crashed. They've been roundly criticized for their overly generous assumptions about housing market hazards (Prices go down? No way!), and for MORE

Japan downgrade: The beginning of the end?

What a downgrade of Japanese debt by S&P could mean for the country's future and for the rest of the world.

The timing of the downgrade of Japan's sovereign bonds by Standard & Poor's on Thursday came as a bit of a surprise to some. After all, Japanese government bond yields have been relatively stable recently, the yen fairly strong, and, as Citigroup points out, the government has vowed to address MORE