Ms. Lagarde bridled at the suggestion that the euro zone was moving toward a "transfer union" where rich countries like Germany and France backstop their neighbors with weaker budgets as long as the recipients agree to strict budget constraints like spending curbs.
The firm, Standard & Poor's, dropped the bond rating from Triple-A, the highest there is, to Double-A Plus, saying the state showed "weak budget practices" through the patchwork spending plan.
The nation can wait until the financial markets revolt, and then respond in a panic and rush through a weak budget agreement -- essentially at the barrel of an economic gun -- or elected policymakers from both political parties could put statesmanship and stewardship ahead of political gamesmanship.
"Congress leaves it to the states, states leave it to the cities and counties, and the cities and counties leave it to, let's face it, fairly low-level political patronage employees with very weak budgets," said Roy Schotland, a professor of law at Georgetown University.
But "Shady Lady" has all too many deficiencies: an overreliance on narration ("The situation seems hopeless," intones Michael Dorn, from "Star Trek: The Next Generation"); an apparently weak effects budget; an awkwardly applied musical score; and trite dialogue ("I've got a bad feeling about this").
The new rules, entailing possible financial penalties for fiscal sinners and big losses for banks in the event of orderly insolvency, will favour the strong dictating to the weak on budget, debt and public finances discipline, while also entrenching eurozone exposure to the pressures of the bond and financial markets.
In addition, state and local government spending, usually a source of economic support in recessions, is likely to remain weak as budget woes persist.
A red rag is India's weak government budget and rather high public debt at 80% of GDP but here again, the highly vulnerable dollar loans are paltry by Asian standards.
Chancellor Merkel's foot-dragging, the impossibly harsh conditions attached to ineffective bailout packages and the German demands to centralize control in Brussels over weak countries' budgets can be understood as an attempt to persuade German voters that monetary union could be rewritten on German terms.
Wages growth, the other element of income tax payments, is low but is no weaker than the budget time estimates, so there are no concerns over income tax collections.
