It was, I think, rather revealing to see figures from the various debt agencies - in particular Moody's, the agency that has gone ahead and downgraded the US's credit rating - being interviewed on various news programmes explaining their actions and outlining their recommendations. It was a stark reminder that for all the waffle about the 'vast impersonal forces' that govern the economic world, the global economy is in fact a complex web of human social relations increasingly subject to the whims...