Financial markets don't like uncertainty, and the S&P downgrade introduced a big dose of it. Not necessarily because people think the US is going belly up, but

Financial markets don't like uncertainty, and the S&P downgrade introduced a big dose of it. Not necessarily because people think the US is going belly up, but because the US is not going to be the white horse galloping in to save the Europeans, who are in far more dire straits. The long term implication is that we are in the opening stages of the first big crisis that will require significant intervention from China. That's scary for a number of reasons.