From FT Alphav­ille, via Naked Capitalism:

The US has been so hurt by the finan­cial tur­moil that mar­kets now view its credit wor­thi­ness as akin to - or even worse than - that of McDonald’s, a shock­ing fact even if you believe that both are fronted by clowns.

One broker quoted McDonald’s CDS at about 26.5 basis points, com­pared with 30bp for the US, on Friday morn­ing and another desk quoted both about 25bp. The pic­ture has wors­ened since the news that politi­cians and public ser­vants in Wash­ing­ton failed to seal a finan­cial bail-​out deal on Thurs­day night. McDonald’s closed at 28bp versus 25bp for the US on Thurs­day, accord­ing to Markit.