Mr Krautzberger says it is more likely that spiking bond yields will spur the rating agencies into action than vice versa, but many investors remain wary of the downgrade risk.
As for the credit-rating concerns, research firm Municipal Market Advisors said in a recent report that Detroit's "risk of downgrade" has "increased" in part because of the sharp demographic decline.
In the U.S., the fiscal cliff debacle promises to take its toll on markets, much like the debt ceiling debate which resulted in a credit rating downgrade and a massive risk asset correction last year.
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And while Fitch says the rest of the UK would keep its triple-A rating intact, it adds that the problems in the UK economy put it on negative watch - that is, at risk of a downgrade.
"The pressure on the US rating is increasing, " said Fitch's David Riley, adding that if there was no deal, there was a "material risk" of a downgrade.
And the US Federal Reserve and bank regulators said that the downgrade won't affect the risk-weighting attached to US sovereign debt for banks - which means that US banks should not be deterred from lending to their government to any great extent.
In the long-term, it's the likes of France and the UK that have most to fear from the downgrade of the US. Perhaps the risk of a sovereign default in those two AAA countries is now smaller than for the US. Their parliaments are certainly more reliable.
Yet, the US downgrade stands as another testament to the growing risk involved with developed market debt.
The reverse movement is a new report by Moody's - which basically says that it misunderstood the inherent structural flaws in the eurozone, and there is a meaningful risk that it will have to downgrade the credit ratings of all eurozone members (even Germany) and possibly some EU members outside the eurozone.
"The downgrade of Greece's sovereign ratings reflects the heightened risk that Greece may not be able to sustain its membership of Economic and Monetary Union, " Fitch said.
Today, economists at Citi have put out a note asking whether the US downgrade had put the UK''s AAA rating at risk.
There was a risk that the credit agencies would give them a ratings downgrade that might spill over to all of Loews.
While many validly fear that the downgrade may impact borrowing costs for our country, the larger potential risk, in my opinion, could be related to the types of assets that certain institutions (i.e. banks) can hold on their respective balance sheets.
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Both parties have barely changed their positions from the summer of 2011, when a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating led to a massive risk-asset selloff.
In the current European crisis, ratings firms had begun to downgrade peripheral euro-zone countries years before bond markets woke up to default risk.
Indian officials recently sounded the alarm that international credit-rating agencies could downgrade the country's debt, resulting in a liquidity crunch, if it is perceived a Y2K risk.
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