Moody's Issues Warning: US Credit Rating Outlook Lowered to 'Negative'

Moody's Investors Services has lowered the US credit rating outlook from "stable" to "negative" due to political polarization in Congress and the risk of successive governments failing to reach consensus on a fiscal plan to address the decline in debt affordability. The agency expects that without effective fiscal policy measures, the US fiscal deficits will remain large, significantly weakening debt affordability. Republicans in the House are working on a temporary spending measure to avoid a government shutdown, while the White House attributes the downgrade to congressional Republican extremism and dysfunction. While Moody's maintained the AAA rating, S&P and Fitch have already downgraded it to AA+.