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, uncoordinated and unsustainable”. The US fiscal position is just one of a number of risks – and far from the biggest.
標準普爾(Standard & Poor's)居然敢對世界上知名度最高、注定會增值的債務類別指手畫腳，實在讓人震驚。畢竟，有幾個行業的失靈可謂本次金融危機的罪魁禍首，而信用評級行業就是其中之一。不過，標準普爾宣布將美國聯邦債務的長期評級由“穩定”調整為“負面”，提醒了我們所有人一件至關重要的事情：世界經濟的運行并不平穩。相反，借用中國總理溫家寶常常用在中國身上的一句話，世界經濟“不穩定、不平衡、不協調、不可持續”。美國的財政狀況只是眾多風險之一，而且遠算不上最大的一個。