The reaction to Fitch Ratings’ downgrade of the US’s pristine debt rating played out on a split screen on Wednesday: outrage from the White House and relative calm among investors in the market for Treasury bonds assessed by the agency.
Fitch late on Tuesday lowered the US long-term rating one rung from triple A to double A plus, citing the country’s growing debt burden and an “erosion of governance”, including on fiscal matters. The action came two months after the country narrowly averted default amid political wrangling over the federal borrowing limit.
The Biden administration reacted with anger, sending out a release citing pundits calling the decision “off-base”, “absurd” and “widely & correctly ridiculed”.