Here's a hypothesis for the European consequences of a US debt downgrade, an act that would, if only symbolically, destroy the notion that there is any such thing as a risk-free investment.

When financial journalists compare themselves with their professional brethren in other spheres, the result is rarely flattering. Not for us the thrill of filing breathlessly in flak jackets while desperate battles for Middle Eastern cities rage in the background. No dinner guests of ours will gasp at scurrilous tales of what we can't actually write about footballers and film stars for fear of the libel lawyers. The pride one has in knowing most of the articles governing the European Stability Mechanism is, in my experience, a flame that burns best under a social bushel.