“Debt ceiling: Moody’s puts U.S. on notice”

I understand the basics of why this is so, but it still seems weird that the largest economy in the world, and thus the world economy as a whole, is at the mercy of Moody’s.

HERE.

This part makes me especially uneasy:

“Moody’s had alerted investors in early June that it was considering putting the U.S. rating under review unless it saw forward movement in the debt talks by mid-July. It cited as a concern the ‘heightened polarization’ in the debate.”

Why does this part bother me? Because it would be one thing if there were simply some sort of automatic formula to judge bond ratings based on performance. But now we have an investor service commenting on the tone of a political debate (“heightened polarization”) and weighing that in their assessment of whether or not to give a gut-punch to the entire world economy.