.png){kind=icon}
Administrator- Joined
- May 11, 2013
- Posts
- 24,890
- Reaction score
- 13,614
- Points
- 2,755
- Location
- Morganton, N.C.
- Website
- conversations-ii.freeforums.net
(The Guardian) Concerns over January 6 played a role in Fitch downgrade of US debt
Credit agency Fitch’s surprise downgrade of US debt from its top rating yesterday was motivated in part by concerns over the January 6 insurrection, Reuters reports.
“It was something that we highlighted because it just is a reflection of the deterioration in governance, it’s one of many,” senior director at Fitch Ratings Richard Francis told Reuters in an interview. “You have the debt ceiling, you have Jan. 6. Clearly, if you look at polarization with both parties ... the Democrats have gone further left and Republicans further right, so the middle is kind of falling apart basically.”
Fitch now rates US debt at AA+ rather than its top AAA level. The Biden administration is unhappy with the downgrade, which Treasury secretary Janet Yellen called “arbitrary and based on outdated data.”
Fitch is the second of the three major ratings agencies to downgrade US debt. In 2011, S&P downgraded the US from its top level rating after a protracted standoff over raising the debt ceiling.
Here’s more from Reuters on Fitch’s surprise decision to downgrade the US debt rating yesterday, citing factors that polarized economists and investors: The rating agency Fitch downgraded the US government’s top credit rating on Tuesday, a move that drew an angry response from the White House and surprised investors.
Fitch downgraded the United States to AA+ from AAA, citing fiscal deterioration over the next three years and repeated down-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations that threaten the government’s ability to pay its bills. It is the second major rating agency after Standard & Poor’s to strip the US of its triple-A rating.
Fitch had first flagged the possibility of a downgrade in May amid the US debt ceiling negotiations, then maintained that position in June after the crisis was resolved, saying it intended to resolve the review in the third quarter of this year.
Credit agency Fitch’s surprise downgrade of US debt from its top rating yesterday was motivated in part by concerns over the January 6 insurrection, Reuters reports.
“It was something that we highlighted because it just is a reflection of the deterioration in governance, it’s one of many,” senior director at Fitch Ratings Richard Francis told Reuters in an interview. “You have the debt ceiling, you have Jan. 6. Clearly, if you look at polarization with both parties ... the Democrats have gone further left and Republicans further right, so the middle is kind of falling apart basically.”
Fitch now rates US debt at AA+ rather than its top AAA level. The Biden administration is unhappy with the downgrade, which Treasury secretary Janet Yellen called “arbitrary and based on outdated data.”
Fitch is the second of the three major ratings agencies to downgrade US debt. In 2011, S&P downgraded the US from its top level rating after a protracted standoff over raising the debt ceiling.
Here’s more from Reuters on Fitch’s surprise decision to downgrade the US debt rating yesterday, citing factors that polarized economists and investors: The rating agency Fitch downgraded the US government’s top credit rating on Tuesday, a move that drew an angry response from the White House and surprised investors.
Fitch downgraded the United States to AA+ from AAA, citing fiscal deterioration over the next three years and repeated down-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations that threaten the government’s ability to pay its bills. It is the second major rating agency after Standard & Poor’s to strip the US of its triple-A rating.
Fitch had first flagged the possibility of a downgrade in May amid the US debt ceiling negotiations, then maintained that position in June after the crisis was resolved, saying it intended to resolve the review in the third quarter of this year.
