http://www.lbnelert.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/US-Capitol-building-with-007.jpgS&P downgrades U.S. credit rating : Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s on Friday downgraded the credit rating of the United States, stripping the world’s largest economy of its prized AAA status. The safest bets are stamped AAA. That’s where U.S. debt has stood for years. Moody’s first assigned the United States a AAA rating in 1917. The country’s new S&P rating is AA+ — still strong, but not the highest.