Darling to go on spending despite credit-rating risk | Business | The First Post.

Yesterday, the credit agency Moody's warned that the top debt ratings on the US and the UK may "test the Triple-A boundaries" because their public sector finances are rapidly deteriorating.

The agency considers both countries to have "resilient" AAA ratings, as opposed to the "resistant" top ratings of Canada, Germany and France. Neither the US nor the UK are considered to have stretched their situations beyond the point of no return - but they may not be far off.

Let's put this in context.

First, these agencies got the credit crunch spectaculalrly wrong. Actually, they're usually wrong.

Second, they are a cartel that needs investigation.

Third, if the US and UK are downgraded for the same reason - so what? People are still desperate to buy our gilts.

Let's get over this fetish with rating agencies: the reality is the markets will provide the cash and if they don't we'll require that bankers do so by lending money to the government through Treasury Deposits.

So it really does not matter what Moody's say: the world will go on. But it won't if we cut 1 million jobs to keep a high rating.