Fitch Ratings is defending its controversial decision to downgrade the US credit rating by pointing to the nation’s mountain of debt
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Richard Francis, the lead analyst on US sovereign ratings at Fitch, told CNN in an interview on Wednesday. America’s debt makes up 113% of its economic output, which Francis called “clearly pretty alarming.” Francis, who leads the committee that decided to remove America’s perfect credit rating, expressed concern about large and growing fiscal deficits and the mounting cost to finance US debt as interest rates rise.
Francis noted that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that the Social Security fund will be depleted by 2033. Francis expressed alarm at the “political polarization on both sides” of the aisle. “Democrats have moved left. Republicans have certainly moved right. And the center’s fallen apart. That just makes making difficult decisions very, very difficult and challenging,” Francis said. “We see very low appetite for really tackling these fiscal challenges.
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