Morning Briefing

"Ratings agency Standard & Poor's warned it may downgrade 'a number of highly rated' Group of 20 [G20] countries from 2015 if their governments fail to enact reforms to curb rising health care spending and other costs related to aging populations," Reuters reports. "Developed nations in Europe, as well as Japan and the United States, are likely to suffer the largest deterioration in their public finances in the next four decades as more elderly strain social safety nets, S&P said in a report," the news agency writes (Hopfner et al., 1/31).