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Stocks and risk assets might be fans of QE3, but Egan-Jones definitely isn't. The underdog rating agency on Friday downgraded its credit rating for the U.S. to AA- from AA, citing the Fed's latest round of stimulus. From Egan-Jones:

[T]he FED's QE3 will stoke the stock market and commodity prices, but in our opinion will hurt the US economy and, by extension, credit quality. Issuing additional currency and depressing interest rates via the purchasing of MBS does little to raise the real GDP of the US, but does reduce the value of the dollar (because of the increase in money supply), and in turn increase the cost of commodities (see the recent rise in the prices of energy, gold, and other commodities). The increased cost of commodities will pressure profitability of businesses, and increase the costs of consumers thereby reducing consumer purchasing power. Hence, in our opinion QE3 will be detrimental to credit quality for the US.... From 2006 to present, the US's debt to GDP rose from 66% to 104% and will probably rise to 110% a year from today under current circumstances; the annual budget deficit is 8%. In comparison, Spain has a debt to GDP of 68.5% and an annual budget deficit of 8.5%.

The downgrade comes three days after Egan-Jones had affirmed its AA rating for the U.S. but warned that further Fed stimulus could trigger a downgrade. Also three days ago, Moody's Investors Service warned it might cut its AAA rating on the U.S. if Uncle Sam can't get a handle on the country's budget and debt-to-GDP ratio. In August 2011, rating agency Standard & Poor's stripped the U.S. of its top credit rating amid partisan debt-ceiling gridlock in Washington.