Kai Ryssdal: In the most basic layperson terms, could you help us understand why we have credit ratings? Atsi Sheth: Sure. So in the most basic terms, a credit rating is really an opinion on the ...

Twelve years later, in 2023, Fitch also downgraded its credit rating for the U.S. government, from AAA to AA+, in the wake of another Republican debt ceiling standoff, with the ratings agency ...