Downgrade watch begins as debt panel concedes defeat

By Peter Schroeder
11/21/11

Credit rating agencies reiterated Monday that the U.S. is at risk of a downgrade following the announcement that the supercommittee has failed.

Standard & Poor's warned lawmakers not to try and roll back the $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts set to begin in 2013. The rater said an effort to reverse those cuts could increase "downward pressures" on the U.S. rating, which S&P already lowered for the first time in August.

Another top rater, Moody's Investors Service, said that the nation's rating is still on a "negative outlook."

S&P became the first rater to downgrade the nation's credit in August, citing the nasty political fight over the debt limit and the lackluster deal that resulted from it. the rest