Will the US lose its triple-A rating ?

Standard & Poors today said there was a one-in-three chance it would lower the U.S.'s long-term triple-A rating within two years. The ratings company cited lack of action taken by U.S. fiscal policy makers, particularly compared to other countries.

An eventual US downgrade would further catalyze China to decouple the yuan from the dollar, continue their consumption of hard assets, and thus potentially enable China to unload U.S. treasuries faster. With each passing day, the chances of the dollar losing its status as the world's reserve currency increases. It may take a number of years for this to occur, but the clock is ticking.

Education.

In the late 1990s, Long Term Capital Management found out the hard way that educational pedigree and mathematical genius (even with a Nobel Prize) is no match for the market—demonstrating that theories and the real world can decouple in a very ugly way.

The stock market does not care how educated you are or whether you have a PhD.  In the market, we all go back to the grade one and have to learn and earn our way to the top. If you've made up your mind you can do something, you're absolutely right.

On being wrong.

No one likes to be wrong, but everyone is wrong at least some of the time. Some people are unwilling to face that fundamental fact of life. In the market, those who can't admit mistakes end up going broke.

Reversal ?

Quantitative easing (QE) remains in effect until at least June, so if history is any guide, downside could be limited to -10% in the NASDAQ Composite. The only time since QE began that the NASDAQ corrected more than -10% was in May 2010 when QE was halted for a few months.

Check market internals,  http://finance.yahoo.com/advances, to further your insight into the market.

The Implications of a Downgraded U.S.

The potential global downside here is large, as Mohamed El-Erian explains:

The world looks to America for a range of "global public goods" — including the reserve currency, the deepest and most liquid government debt markets, and the "risk free" standard. With no other country able and willing to step into this role, the result would be global efficiency loses and a higher risk of economic and financial fragmentation.