DEBT: U.S. AAA credit rating in jeopardy as risks get reality check. “Moody’s and S&P warned this week that they might soon cut the government’s top-rung debt rating because of the political battle over the debt ceiling and spending cuts. Yet so far, that hasn’t scared off Treasury bond buyers. . . . There is the sense that Moody’s and S&P are playing hardball with Uncle Sam because their reputations are so tarnished by the many AAA ratings they handed out to mortgage bonds that crumbled with the housing bust.”