While it is highly unlikely that Treasury debt would ever be so downgraded that banks would have to sell their holdings or raise additional capital, any downgrade would be viewed very, very negatively by banks, insurance companies, pension funds and other institutions that now hold large quantities of Treasury bonds.
Bruckner gives the example of Veronica, who initially prefers to become an Olympic competitor in tennis, but after years of practice realizes that even though she is very talented at tennis, she will not achieve Olympic status, and so downgrades her aspirations and comes to prefer to be a local star, a change in preference that might occur behind her back and thus be non-autonomous (313).
S&P's current rating for India is BBB-minus, so a downgrade would put it in "junk" territory.
Today, markets often render credit judgments before the rating agencies can take out their pens, so a downgrade has a less noticeable effect.
Some institutional investors are required only to invest in triple-A rated instruments, so any downgrade could lead to a sell-off.
If your wife's Dell is a business machine, it could have Windows 8 Pro installed, so a downgrade to 7 Pro should be relatively simple.
The Mailcoach, Wellgate I am beginning to feel a little tipsy and decide to start pacing myself, so I downgrade from bitter to Carling Black Label, which has the advantage of being completely undrinkable anyway.
Investment-grade managers are not permitted to own speculative-grade debt, so a downgrade by rating agencies to below-investment-grade status forces them to sell.
So you downgrade the titles throughout your résumé to maintain consistency.
