The Political Economy of Sovereign Bond Ratings (and Travel)

by Chris Borgen Thomas Barnett has pointed out a map in Business Week that is coded for the sovereign bond rating of each country (the map is a click-through from this page ). What Barnett calls the “Old Core” (the U.S., Canada, western Europe, etc.) tend to have the highest ratings, the “New Core” (Brazil, Russia, India, China and other rising powers) have the next highest group of ratings and “Gap” states (which are relatively disconnected from the global economy) have the lowest r