History will show that in the summer of 2011 our country was gripped by a contentious debate over our nation’s debt ceiling and the need to curtail our spending. This battle promises to be a regular event on the calendar, as the issues involved will probably outlast you and me before they’re fully resolved. Although the Congress was able to come to an 11th-hour compromise, the constant back and forth did little to settle our ongoing economic problems. Among the challenges we continue to face are a slowing rate of manufacturing growth, weak consumer spending, persistent long-term unemployment, and the continued deterioration of the housing market. Perhaps the last thing we needed was a downgrade of our pristine US sovereign credit rating, which was dropped to AA+ from AAA, a rating we had held since 1917.