Blogs > Iwan Morgan > Five days that shook America  Aug 8, 2011
12:51 pm  Five days that shook America  There was fictional
movie called "Seven Days in May" about the foiling of a military
coup in the United States. There's unlikely to be a film called
"Five Days in August" because it's difficult to see how the real
events of this time can have a happy ending.  These were
certainly five days that shook America, beginning with the last
minute congressional agreement over the debt limit, proceeding
to stock market turmoil, and ending with the S&P downgrade of
its debt.    The downgrade of the debt was something of a
national humiliation - "it's hit the self-esteem of the United
States, the psyche" Alan Greenspan pronounced.   Some
commentators spoke of this as the moment that marked the end of
America's global economic hegemony.   America's biggest
creditor, the People's Republic of China, made angry noises
about the US having to mend its indebted ways, rather
like parents telling off a teenager off about misus