Standard & Poor's, a global credit rating agency, recently downgraded ß÷ßäÉçÇø's rating from AAA to AA+. Bob Ascah, Fellow of The Institute for Public Economics at the ß÷ßäÉçÇø, worked in the ß÷ßäÉçÇø Treasury Department in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and had frequent contact with rating agency personnel. Dr. Ascah explores the implications of the downgrade for ß÷ßäÉçÇø in an interview, and in a column for the .