America Turns From Tea Party to MMT in a Decade
The winds of economic thought have shifted drastically heading into the 2020s.
The sentiment has changed.
Photographer: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
The date: Aug. 5, 2011. This columnist had just celebrated his 22nd birthday. Those in the Obama administration were far less cheerful: S&P Global Ratings announced it would downgrade America’s credit rating for the first time ever, even though lawmakers had finally agreed to a hard-fought compromise on raising the debt ceiling.
“The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics,” S&P said in its statement. Market strategists warned that “sovereign credit quality is going to remain under pressure for years to come.”