S&P strips the United States of its AAA credit rating for the first time in history

Standard & Poor's downgrades the U.S. sovereign credit rating from AAA to AA+, citing the contentious debt ceiling standoff and the federal government's failure to agree on a credible medium-term deficit reduction plan. The downgrade comes four days after Congress passed the Budget Control Act of 2011. It's the first time in U.S. history that any major credit agency has rated American government debt below AAA. S&P estimated the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio would reach roughly 80% by 2013, well above the AAA median. Markets drop sharply in the days following the announcement.