A descida do rating dos EUA

Como temido a Standard & Poors anunciou a redução do rating dos EUA de AAA para AA+ justificando esta redução pelo facto de a prolongada controvérsia em torno do aukmento dos limites de endividamento federal indicar que os progressos no curto prazo relativamente à redução do défice serão menos prováveis do que o anteriormente assumido e que o plano de consolidação fiscal acordado fica aquém do necessário para estabilizar o peso da dívida pública em meados da década.

Para a S&P "The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously elieved. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy. Despite this year's wide-ranging debate, in our view, the differences between political parties have proven to be extraordinarily difficult to bridge, and, as we see it, the resulting agreement fell well short of the comprehensive fiscal consolidation program that some proponents had envisaged until quite recently. Republicans and Democrats have only been able to agree to relatively modest savings on discretionary spending while delegating to the Select Committee decisions on more comprehensive measures. It appears that for now, new revenues have dropped down on the menu of policy options. In addition, the plan envisions only minor policy changes on Medicare and little change in other entitlements, the containment of which we and most other independent observers regard as key to long-term fiscal sustainability".

PS: Sobre as possíveis consequências desta acção recomendo um conjunto de posts recentes do Alphaville, nomeadamente aqui, aqui e aqui. A ideia que parece ressaltar é que, à partida, as consequências serão limitadas mas existem factores de incerteza relacionados nomeadamente com a importância dos títulos do Tesouro dos EUA (ou garantidos pelo Tesouro dos EUA), riscos que a Reserva Federal se apressou a tentar conter anunciando imediatamente que "For risk-based capital purposes, the risk weights for Treasury securities and other securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. government, government agencies, and government-sponsored entities will not change. The treatment of Treasury securities and other securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. government, government agencies, and government-sponsored entities under other federal banking agency regulations, including, for example, the Federal Reserve Board's Regulation W, will also be unaffected".