Moody’s tells us what we already know about U.S. debt

COMMENTARY

Moody’s tells us what we already know about U.S. debt

Take the firm’s decision to strip the country of its top AAA credit rating seriously, not literally

Moody’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating reflects growing concern over Washington’s unwillingness to confront rising debt, soaring deficits and interest costs — even as global investors keep piling into Treasuries. | REUTERS

By Robert Burgess
Bloomberg

May 19, 2025

S&P Global Ratings stripped the U.S. of its coveted AAA credit rating in 2011 and Fitch Ratings did the same in 2023. Given how the country’s finances have only worsened since, it was only a matter of time before the third major ratings firm, Moody’s Investors Service, fell in line and did the same.

That moment came late Friday afternoon after markets closed for the week, when Moody’s, like S&P and Fitch, lowered the rating one level, to Aa1.

The action “reflects the increase over more than a decade in government debt and interest payment ratios to levels that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns,” Moody’s said in a statement. “Successive U.S. administrations and Congress have failed to agree on measures to reverse the trend of large annual fiscal deficits and growing interest costs.”