As Michael Hirsh points out in the National Journal, S&P wasn't alone in lowering its rating of U.S. In mid-July, Egan-Jones also downgraded the U.S. one notch, to AA+. Egan-Jones is small and relatively unknown, but its work is arguably of a higher quality: unlike the big three, the firm warned investors about toxic assets before the 2008 financial crisis.
Egan-Jones downgraded U.S. debt because, in its view, a virulently polarized Washington is not capable of tackling the challenge posed by the large and mounting debt. "I don't think the political leaders have a handle on what [the] country is faced with. They still don't understand the underlying factors," Managing Director Sean Egan told Hirsch.
That, in fact, was essentially the same rationale that S&P deployed in downgrading the U.S.
