Category Government bonds downgraded

Aug 4 2023

US Credit Rating & the Sovereign Debt Crisis


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Aug 3, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: What do you make of the US debt downgrade? Do you think this has anything to do with indicting Trump in three courts? I know many people decided to donate to Trump today, even for the first time, as a sign of disapproval of the Biden Administration and the RINOs.

HJ

ANSWER:

It is time for the Credit Rating Agencies to knock off the BS. Yes, Fitch Ratings downgraded US long-term debt late on Tuesday from AAA to AA+, citing this spring’s debt ceiling standoff as a significant reason. That is nonsense. NO government ever intends to pay off its debts. Historically they ALWAYS default. The global financial system has relied on the promise that the US government will always repay its debts. Some wrongly believe that this is what makes the US dollar the most widely held currency worldwide. The backing behind the dollar is twofold.

  1. Largest Consumer-based economy in the world that everyone needs to sell into
  2. The deepest financial market in the world to park money as well as finance projects and float stocks

This is why the US markets barely reacted to the news in after-hours trading on Tuesday, and US Treasuries were holding steady. Of course, you have the traditional bearish prognosticators who claim the last time there was a downgrade, and the market crashed by 6.5%. The real question is – sell stocks, and the traditional flight to quality is you buy bonds – which were just downgraded. Hm? Many are starting to wake up that the only safe place for wealth will be in tangible assets, for this Biden Administration is completely desperate and out of control. You cannot threaten China and Russia with war and then ask them to buy your debt. China is disinvesting in US government debt ASAP. That is also the reason for the downgrade.

These indictments against Trump, while Biden and Hunter actually could be charged with Treason, have undermined the confidence in the United States government internationally more than anything. They are trying to prevent Trump from running in 2024, for the Neocons know they would be fired if not put on trial for treason themselves. Trump vowed to run for office from prison. RFK should join as the VP and abandon the Democrats, for they will NEVER allow him to gain a toe in their Washington club.

Yes, I have gotten many emails saying people are donating to Trump’s 2024 campaign as a matter of protest against this Biden Administration. All I can hope is that even Democrats wake up before it is too late and stop this hate-Trump nonsense, for what lurks in Washington is so much worse. This judge in Washington will put Trump in prison in the blink of an eye. This judge has been handing out time in excess of the prosecutor’s recommendations. That is unheard of.  You are about to witness the complete collapse of the Rule of Law in the United States, and once that goes – it is time to turn out the lights.

The US will eventually descend into civil war at worst, just as China and Russia did when faced with the rise of the LEFT. Some states will separate from this absolutely corrupt government. We cannot rule out the Biden Administration canceling the dollar before the 2024 election, for the Neocons do not care about the economy – only their geopolitical goals. With the Neocons in such a desperate position, they may not wait for the election and connect a dollar cancelation to some geopolitical event. The EU would most likely do the same on a coordinated basis, and both Canada and the UK will follow suit with Japan, Australia, and South Korea.

If the Neocons manufacture a geopolitical conflict before the election, beware of the 2nd quarter next year. That does NOT mean we should lose all hope. You cannot create a new system without purging the old one. Keep your fingers crossed for post-2032, and we get to start anew just as the Founding Fathers overthrew the monarchy and created a new political system.

C

Aug 3 2023

They See It Coming – Fitch Joins S&P to Downgrade USA Credit Rating


Posted originally on the CTH on August 2, 2023 | Sundance 

Collapse is never a sudden occurrence; it is an outcome of gradual erosion over time. A weakening that takes place almost invisible to those who pass through the construct, until eventually, at an uneventful time in the mechanics of history, the process gives way.

Fitch has joined with the prior position of Standard & Poors to downgrade the USA credit rating. The weight of debt, in combination with reverberations from the continued hammering deep inside the political fundamental change operation, has triggered another flare.

In the bigger picture, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy driven by the latest focus on unsustainable economic policy, aka The Green New Deal. The efforts of the fiscal, monetary and economic policy are all aligned to shrink the U.S. economy, thereby creating the era of “sustainable energy” a possibility. Unfortunately, this is akin to a household intentionally shrinking their income while at the same time taking on credit card debt. The process itself is not sustainable.

(Reuters) – Rating agency Fitch on Tuesday downgraded the U.S. government’s top credit rating, a move that drew an angry response from the White House and surprised investors, coming despite the resolution of the debt ceiling crisis two months ago.

Traders’ immediate response was to embark on a safe-haven push out of stocks and into government bonds and the dollar.

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.

[…] “In Fitch’s view, there has been a steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, including on fiscal and debt matters, notwithstanding the June bipartisan agreement to suspend the debt limit until January 2025,” the rating agency said in a statement.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen disagreed with Fitch’s downgrade, in a statement that called it “arbitrary and based on outdated data.”

[…] In a previous debt ceiling crisis in 2011, Standard & Poor’s cut the top “AAA” rating by one notch a few days after a debt ceiling deal, citing political polarization and insufficient steps to right the nation’s fiscal outlook. Its rating is still “AA-plus” – its second highest.

After that downgrade, U.S. stocks tumbled and the impact of the rating cut was felt across global stock markets, which were in the throes of the euro zone financial meltdown.

In May, Fitch had placed its “AAA” rating of U.S. sovereign debt on watch for a possible downgrade, citing downside risks, including political brinkmanship and a growing debt burden. (read More)

What do Barack Obama and Joe Biden have in common?  They were both in office, executing an identical economic, fiscal and monetary policy, when the USA credit was downgraded.