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U.S. economy has defied downgrade doomsayers

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Almost a year after Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC downgraded the U.S. government’s credit rating, dire predictions about the country’s financial health have been proved wrong, Bloomberg reported.

Mortgage rates have dropped to record lows, the government’s borrowing costs have eased, the dollar and the benchmark Standard & Poor’s stock index are up, and global investors’ enthusiasm for Treasury debt has strengthened, Bloomberg said.

“The U.S. Treasury is still the widest, deepest and most actively traded in the world,” said Jeffrey Caughron, a partner at Baker Group LP, which advises community banks on investments of more than $40 billion.

Even in a slow recovery, the United States has unparalleled assets in the global market, including the size and resilience of its economy and the dollar’s standing as the world’s reserve currency. Low Treasury yields show that most investors believe the U.S. government will meet its obligations, no matter how dysfunctional the political climate becomes in Washington, Bloomberg said.

Warren Buffett turned out to be prescient in shrugging off the downgrade. “In Omaha, the U.S. is still triple-A,” Buffett said in 2011 amid the uproar. “In fact, if there were a quadruple-A rating, I’d give the U.S. that.”

Still, there is broad agreement that the country. must address the long-term fiscal imbalances that have driven public debt up to 68 percent of gross domestic product. Click here to read the full story.