Bond banks have their own overseers, and ratings agencies analyze the banks' creditworthiness, grading issues accordingly.
The companies that rate New Jersey's state bonds gave the state's creditworthiness another good grade last week, with a warning: a tidal wave of new debt in the offing could still swamp the state.
"We are seeing more volatility in the creditworthiness of investment- grade companies," Mr. Griep said.
At that level, their creditworthiness is at the lower end of the investment grade, just two levels above junk.
The trouble is that ratings, which in S&P's terminology range from AAA to BBB- (for investment-grade credits) and below that from BB+ to D (for default) are not as finely graded as market judgments of creditworthiness.
In a nutshell, your credit score is a three-digit numerical grade that provides a snapshot of your creditworthiness to credit card companies, mortgage lenders, auto lenders, etc. pretty much anyone who wants to loan you money or extend you a line of credit.
Bond ratings are grades given to bonds on the basis of the creditworthiness of the government, municipality, or corporation issuing them.
In the late 70s he opened up the bond market to "noninvestment grade" companies that issued bonds that because of their issuers' tenuous creditworthiness came to be denoted "junk".
A letter grade would presumably help consumers better grasp where they rank in creditworthiness.
Philadelphia scores the worst rating of the big cities at Baa1, which represents "average creditworthiness," according to Moody's, and is the lowest rating in the investment-grade category.
No proof of creditworthiness.
