U.S. Treasuries Have Lost Their 'Risk-Free' Luster

Standard & Poors' downgrading of U.S. debt on August 5 merely confirmed what any observer of Washington has known for a long time: The U.S. government has no credible plan to tackle the unsustainable deficits forecasted for 2015 and beyond. The new information this summer is that a partisan, gridlocked U.S. political system has injected a new level of uncertainty into markets.