Courtest Hayes Davidson and Herzog & de MeuronAnother episode in the comedy show of the UK austerity regime.
A Moody's analyst warned this morning that weak growth and fiscal "slippage" could cause the ratings agency to remove the country's prized AAA status.
Now apparently this wasn't a "real" warning or anything like that, just an analyst commenting, but they basically told the truth. So far, the country's efforts at scaling down costs have only made the economy weakern, and haven't actually done anything to lower the country's debt, and at least one ratings agency isn't feeling any better about them.
Now once again you have to ask if the UK is like Japan and the US -- countries that borrow in currencies they control, and thus unlikely to "default". That somewhat obviates the whole point of the ratings agencies, but least by their traditional metrics, they seem to be failing.