Source: Financial Times, 19th April 2011

It is astonishing that Standard & Poor's can say anything about the best-known debt class in the world that is deemed to add value. This business is, after all, one of a class whose failures contributed mightily to the financial crisis. Nevertheless, the announcement that it was shifting its long-term rating on US federal debt from stable to negative reminded us all of something vital: the world economy is not on a stable path. On the contrary, to adopt a phrase often applied by the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao to his country, the world economy is "unsteady, unbalanced, unco-ordinated and unsustainable". The US fiscal position is just one of a number of risks - and far from the biggest.