The Mouse That Roared: Countries With AAA Ratings. World Powers? Uh, Not Exactly

So who are these titans of finance who bestride the world's capital markets like colossi?

The US has been downgraded by serial ratings seller S&P. It would be comforting to know who is rated higher. So here is the list for all of you anxiously keeping score at home.

Liechtenstein made the list, as did its cousin Luxembourg. Can't find them on a map? Or thought they were wheat beers rather than actual nations? Yeah, we get it.

France, and its wines and cheeses are on there, as is the UK. And who could forget Singapore. Denmark swung a big stick in the 14th century and they made it (remember Shakespeare's Hamlet, the melancholy Dane from 10th grade English class?). The Germans? Natch, but we all know what happens when they get too cocky. Switzerland beat the bejesus out of Austria back there in 1100 or something so they make the cut. In total there are seventeen AAA countries. It does occur to us that having a seat at the UN but less population than North Dakota in January ought to mean there should be brackets like in state football championships. But, hey, we're not Masters of the Universe so we'll leave that to the really smart guys who brought you the 2008 financial crisis. JL

24/7 Wall Street reports via HuffPost Business:

On Friday, Standard and Poor's downgraded the credit of the United States for the first time in history, leaving only thirteen countries in the world with a true top-level AAA rating, according to 24/7 Wall St.

Not all credit rating agencies agree with S&P's downgrade. Indeed, in the days before the S&P downgrade, other rating agencies confirmed their confidence in the ability of the U.S. government to repay their debt. Moody’s has already affirmed the U.S. government’s Aaa rating, but with a negative outlook. Fitch also affirmed its AAA rating for the U.S.,
but warned that the rising debt profile to over 100% of GDP (after 2012) is not consistent with retaining the crucial AAA sovereign rating.

In light of the weakening economy, and following the ratings agency actions, 24/7 Wall St. has decided to reassess the entire global triple-A landscape. Our previous take was that some nations already seemed to be far less deserving of the triple-A rating category than others. The key assumption here is that the U.S. is no longer a true triple-A- rated nation. This implies that other nations with similar conditions are also at risk of losing their triple-A rating, and that there are really far fewer than 17 true nations in the triple-A club now. Our review includes updated figures from Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s along with revised statistics from the CIA World Factbook. We’ve sourced also from the Economist Intelligence Unit, Fitch, Egan Jones, and elsewhere.

S&P still has a triple-A rating on Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Other triple-A nations like Guernsey, Isle of Man, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg we left out due to their small size and dependence upon other nations. Moody’s ratings were also used to make sure that the discrepancies are not overlooked.