S & P has taken a decision resounding Friday: leave the first world power of the inner circle of the most reliable borrowers. Now the United States are nothing more than "AA +". To reduce the deficit, U.S. President Barack Obama largely agrees to cut public spending, including social, but demand for part-against higher taxes for the wealthy.
The rating agency Standard and Poor's lowered the rating Friday on the public debt of the United States, deprived of their "AAA" for the first time in history, citing the "political risks" facing the challenges of the deficit budget. S & P said in a statement it had lowered the rating a notch, the best possible, to bring it to "AA +".It also downgraded the outlook to "negative", which means that Standard and Poor's believes that the next time the note will change, it is to be lowered again.
It justified its decision with "political risks" to see the country taking insufficient measures against its budget deficit. For her, the political debate on these issues is not up to the problems caused by a debt of more than 14,500 billion. "The plan for balancing the budget on which Congress and the Executive have recently agreed is insufficient compared to what, in our view, would be needed to stabilize the dynamics in the medium term public debt" , said the agency, citing the law known as "control the budget" passed Tuesday.
The United States were rated "AAA" by Standard and Poor's since the creation of this agency in 1941.They remain in the other two major agencies, Moody's Dean (since 1917) and Fitch Ratings. The U.S. government has accused S & P based its decision on serious errors in calculations. "An appraisal contains an error of 2.000 billion dollars speaks for itself," he told a press spokesman for the Treasury Department. U.S. media said the government had severely challenged the projections of analysts of the agency after reviewing the findings of S & P. In vain.
The pitch was not easy to be taken to a U.S. agency."They have downgraded a bunch of European countries, and Europeans were bent on rating agencies: why you lower your bill and not the U.S.?" Fell on the Bloomberg TV channel economist Nouriel Roubini, who became famous for his dark predictions.
The loss of this seal of excellence is expected brutal impact on the financial markets, difficult to imagine right now. The U.S. Treasury is an undisputed reference: a standard cost of money, usually an instrument of "collateral" (guarantee) in a variety of transactions, and a refuge for investors in troubled times. "Uncertainty about the impact on the market is high," said recently the investment bank Goldman Sachs, exploring the potential consequences.The lowering of this note should indeed force investors to reassess risk widespread.
Standard and Poor's warned in April that it was considering lowering, given the persistently high budget deficit and rising public debt. The unfolding conflict of budget debates in the coming months, which culminated Tuesday in extremis on raising the legal limit of public debt, had only compare this perspective. John Chambers, President of the Evaluation Committee of S & P, said Friday on CNN that Washington could have prevented the lowering of the notes within the ceiling earlier. He said the responsibilities were shared by the Administration and Obama, but also to "the previous administration."
The first political reaction in Washington have shown just block pointed to by S & P.Mitt Romney, candidate for the Republican primary, has called the downgrade of American "latest victim of the failure of Obama's economic" and the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives as "a consequence of control spending in Washington in recent decades. " The Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid, has instead called for "a balanced approach to deficit reduction," with spending cuts but also increases targeted taxes, it rejected the Republicans, under pressure ultra-conservative "tea party", in the recent discussions on the dates.
The S & P announcement came as the markets had closed for the weekend, but initial reactions are mixed from Asia.The Japan, the second holder of U.S. debt world, assured that his confidence in the U.S. Treasury and its strategy of purchasing these bonds were unchanged. France "with complete confidence in the strength of the U.S. economy," said Saturday told AFP the Minister of Economy Baroin. But China, by far the largest creditor of the world the United States, found that it was "now all rights to require the United States they are addressing their structural problem of debt."
The United States had their public finances sealed by the harsh recession that crossed their economy from late 2007 to mid-2009. Since then, economic growth has returned, but they are not able to restore the health of their public finances.According to estimates by the International Monetary Fund, they should acknowledge this year, with about 9% of GDP, the highest budget deficit of the G20 countries, except Japan. It is sixteen countries rated "AAA" by Standard and Poor's, four of the G7: Germany, Canada, France and Great Britain.