What: NPR’s Planet Money podcast
Episode: The Tuesday podcast: Would a downgrade matter?
Recommended by: Kurt Batdorf, Snohomish County Business Journal editor
The pitch: Let’s assume that the U.S. government raises the debt ceiling, and the country keeps paying its bills next month. (And that’s the case as of Tuesday afternoon.)
It’s still very possible that one or more rating agencies will downgrade the country’s credit rating, Planet Money reporters David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein discover.
In this episode, they ask: Would a downgrade matter?
They revisit a question the show asked last year: How do you rate a country?
And they talk to one expert who says a downgrade of America’s credit rating would make for splashy headlines, but would likely have a relatively small impact. Most of America’s debt is held by big institutional investors — and those investors do their own research, and don’t tend to be swayed much by what rating agencies say.
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