decisions in d.c. were enough to call for the political decision to do so. many analysts believe the failure to do is deal with almost certainly trigger at least one of the ratings agencies to take our debt from double a plus to double a. insidey's placed the u.s. on negative credit watch. perhaps the supercommittee is exactly what it is watching. the last agency still has the top rating for the u.s. but with some concerns. remember the impact of the first and only other downgrade ever? stocks sank around the world. here in the u.s., the largest one day selloff since the credit crisis in 2008 with the dow down 600 points in one day. it wasn't the only casualty. consumer confidence also sharply declined. you would expect that a lower credit rating would send interest rates sky high. it didn't. the feds buying binge at a time of economic uncertainty sent rates way down and guess what, stocks went up later. yes, bottom line, a down grade