So this is a project I'm working on, and this is a series of front covers to downgrade our super, hyper to downgrade our super, hyper mobile phones into the essence of their function.

UNOCI proposes to downgrade this post from the P 5 to the P 4 level.

In the run up to the downgrade, an analyst at Moody s said that the decision would be based largely on whether the government heeded the Gallois report s call for a competitiveness shock to France s economy. The downgrade thus suggests that Moody s considered the government s response insufficient.

And now the country has absorbed another huge blow another downgrade of its bond ratings. Both Moody s and Standard amp

That agreement allowed the world to hope that the US economy would embark on a more predictable path to recovery. The downgrade has undermined that hope.

And now the country has absorbed another huge blow another downgrade of its bond ratings. Both Moody s and Standard Poor s now rate Japanese bonds at only their fourth highest level.

Upon further review of the responsibilities of this position, and in accordance with the recommendation of the Advisory Committee, UNOCI proposes to downgrade this position to the P 5 level.

To anyone not blinded by folly, the explanation for this mass downgrade is obvious. If you deliberately aim to shrink your GDP, your debt to GDP ratio is bound to grow.

It had originally been intended that the Doha Round would address investment, but the developing countries chose to downgrade the issue and concentrate on agriculture instead. This tactic has proven to be a two edged sword.

So long as the US government does not default, whatever losses China may experience from the downgrade will be small. To be sure, the dollar s value will fall, imposing a balance sheet loss on the Peoples Bank of China (PBC, the central bank).

Yet, those of us who are exposed on a daily basis to the inner workings of financial markets would caution against too upbeat an attitude toward a second downgrade by a major ratings agency. Moreover, the potential impact certainly is not linear.

But S P s downgrade was a poor decision, taken at the wrong time. If America s debts had truly become less trustworthy, they would have been even more dubious before the agreement reached on August 2 by Congress and President Barack Obama to raise the government s debt ceiling.

After all, the global financial crisis badly damaged the credibility of ratings agencies as a whole. Moreover, one would be hard pressed to identify any meaningful hit to the US from the decision by another major agency, Standard Poor s, to downgrade America s sovereign rating in August 2011.

BEIJING While the downgrade of United States government debt by Standard amp Poor s shocked global financial markets, China has more reason to worry than most the bulk of its 3.2 trillion in official foreign reserves more than 60 is denominated in dollars, including 1.1 trillion in US Treasury bonds.

But S amp P s downgrade was a poor decision, taken at the wrong time. If America s debts had truly become less trustworthy, they would have been even more dubious before the agreement reached on August 2 by Congress and President Barack Obama to raise the government s debt ceiling.

Although projections by the IMF and others have been persistently optimistic, each setback has been treated as a temporary deviation, associated with its own unique cause the Greek bailout, the tragic tsunami in Japan, the spike in volatility following Standard amp Poor s downgrade of US debt, and so on.

BEIJING While the downgrade of United States government debt by Standard Poor s shocked global financial markets, China has more reason to worry than most the bulk of its 3.2 trillion in official foreign reserves more than 60 is denominated in dollars, including 1.1 trillion in US Treasury bonds.

As private rating agencies live on the fees they collect from rated companies, they cannot easily downgrade important clients or the assets they sell. The big American investment banks received excellent ratings up to the last moment, and so did the CDOs with which they betrayed the world.

Now a combination of high oil and commodity prices, turmoil in the Middle East, Japan s earthquake and tsunami, eurozone debt crises, and America s fiscal problems (and now its rating downgrade) have led to a massive increase in risk aversion. Economically, the United States, the eurozone, the United Kingdom, and Japan are all idling.

Whether or not the critics are right, one thing is clear with the Fed lagging other global central banks in the monetary tightening cycle, and with rating agencies contemplating a downgrade of America s credit score, the US dollar s purchasing power has sunk to an all time low against the currencies of America s trading partners.

So ill, in fact, that Standard Poor s recently cut its sovereign credit rating the country s second downgrade in less than two years. The decision was accompanied by warnings that the budgetary and structural reforms that President François Hollande s administration has implemented over the last year have been inadequate to improve France s medium term growth prospects.

The irony of the Tea Party revolt, of course, is that it undermines the private sector more than it reins in big government. The S P downgrade resulted in a flight to quality, meaning that investors bought US government debt thus increasing its price and lowering the rate that the federal government pays to borrow.

For three years, repeated warnings that such an attack is imminent have flown in the face of the evidence US Treasury securities remain a safe haven asset for global investors, including risk sensitive foreign central banks. Indeed, global investors ignored Standard Poor s 2011 decision to downgrade US government debt, driving down yields even further.

The second, and more important, reason for the Franco German struggle to postpone a Greek default is the risk that a Greek default would induce sovereign defaults in other countries and runs on other banking systems, particularly in Spain and Italy. This risk was highlighted by the recent downgrade of Italy s credit rating by Standard amp

The irony of the Tea Party revolt, of course, is that it undermines the private sector more than it reins in big government. The S amp P downgrade resulted in a flight to quality, meaning that investors bought US government debt thus increasing its price and lowering the rate that the federal government pays to borrow.

We can also add to these financial risks the massive problems of bond insurers that guaranteed many of the risky securitization products such as CDOs. A very likely downgrade of these insurers credit ratings will force banks and financial institutions that hold these risky assets to write them down, adding another 150 billion to the financial system s mounting losses.

The second, and more important, reason for the Franco German struggle to postpone a Greek default is the risk that a Greek default would induce sovereign defaults in other countries and runs on other banking systems, particularly in Spain and Italy. This risk was highlighted by the recent downgrade of Italy s credit rating by Standard Poor s.

In response to Iran s nuclear program and Iranian banks money laundering activities, Britain sanctioned the Central Bank of Iran. As a result, Iran felt compelled to respond and not solely with the assault on the British embassy a few days prior to the attack, a majority in the Iranian parliament voted to downgrade the country s diplomatic relations with Britain.

As proof of this new realism, the government has been trumpeting its response to the set of policy recommendations that an expert panel led by the business executive Louis Gallois presented two weeks before the downgrade. The response is centered on a payroll tax cut, which will be offset by spending cuts and a higher value added tax.

MADRID The recent downgrade of Brazil s credit rating to junk status was followed by a raft of articles heralding the crumbling of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). How predictable schadenfreude almost always follows bad news about the BRICS, whose members were once hailed as the world s up and coming economic powerhouses and next major political force.

In response to Iran s nuclear program and Iranian banks money laundering activities, Britain sanctioned the Central Bank of Iran. As a result, Iran felt compelled to respond 160 and not solely with the assault on the British embassy a few days prior to the attack, a majority in the Iranian parliament voted to downgrade the country s diplomatic relations with Britain.

In fact, as psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky have shown, there is a systematic human tendency to downgrade the perceived probability of low probability events, so that people go about their lives as if the probability of these events occurrence is zero. Similarly, humans tend to accept large downside risks in order to avoid small certain losses, such as insurance premiums.

At that point, the cost of being singled out as collaborating with members of the other side and thus the risk of being unseated by more extreme forces in one s party may well decline. Moreover, since early September, the potential benefits of cooperation now include avoiding an embarrassing credit rating downgrade next year if medium term fiscal reform does not materialize.

BEIJING US Vice President Joe Biden s recent four day visit to China ended on a high note. He assured Chinese leaders that the United States is committed to honoring all its debts, despite its recent credit downgrade he talked enthusiastically about US China interdependence and he showcased his granddaughter, who has studied Chinese for several years, as a future bridge between the two countries.

NEW YORK Recent market volatility in emerging and developed economies alike is showing once again how badly ratings agencies and investors can err in assessing countries economic and financial vulnerabilities. Ratings agencies wait too long to spot risks and downgrade countries, while investors behave like herds, often ignoring the build up of risk for too long, before shifting gears abruptly and causing exaggerated market swings.

In both Germany and South Korea, economic strength seems to have produced an illusion of policy independence that is opening a chasm between the two countries and their allies a chasm that revelations of US spying, on Merkel in particular, have deepened. Germany and South Korea, however, will gain little, and risk much, if they downgrade their alliance ties in favor of commercially motivated, if unofficial, neutrality.

Although projections by the IMF and others have been persistently optimistic, each setback has been treated as a temporary deviation, associated with its own unique cause the Greek bailout, the tragic tsunami in Japan, the spike in volatility following Standard Poor s downgrade of US debt, and so on. The return to 4.5 world growth has merely been pushed back in the latest forecasts to 2015.

Poor s has received some justified criticism for the analysis behind its recent decision to downgrade US government debt after all, there was little economic news that could explain the move s timing. But S amp P s assessment of the political situation is on target by creating a dysfunctional paralysis at the heart of government, the Tea Party has shown that it is willing to impose dramatic costs on the broader economy and to ensure significantly slower growth.

Fortunately, the recent threat of a downgrade of Inda s sovereign credit rating which would have made it difficult to finance the current account deficit has led to a government reshuffle and a shift in policies. The key political change was the appointment of a new finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, whose selection by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi sent a strong positive signal to the Indian business community and to financial markets.

Standard Poor s has received some justified criticism for the analysis behind its recent decision to downgrade US government debt after all, there was little economic news that could explain the move s timing. But S P s assessment of the political situation is on target by creating a dysfunctional paralysis at the heart of government, the Tea Party has shown that it is willing to impose dramatic costs on the broader economy and to ensure significantly slower growth.