Down a notch

摘要

Arcana such as credit ratings are not the usual butt of cartoonists and chat-show hosts. But thanks to President Nicolas Sarkozy, France's aaa rating became a national symbol last year. Every voter knew it was bad news when Standard & Poor's (s&p), a ratings agency, downgraded France from aaa to aa+ on January 13th. S&p blamed the euro-zone crisis and France's high debt. It also stripped Austria of its aaa rating and downgraded seven other countries. But Germany kept its top rating, despite being on credit watch. Had Germany also been downgraded, Mr Sar-kozy's failings might have come under less intensive scrutiny.