Downgrading the US government makes no sense from a US investor's perspective: it's always going to be the safest entity around

Why is that necessarily Jérôme? Could it not decide to default on part of his debt, or inflate away? In that case it would probably be worse than bonds from a Government that more or less balances the accounts, wouldn't it?

Having said that, I agree that in that particular case, it was pure propaganda against social programs. There was no mention of the war, or of tax cuts on the rich, which is a rather clear canary in the mine...

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi