Biden attributes S&P president change to business pressure

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden attributed on Sunday the leadership change in rating agency Standard & Poor’s to business pressure.

Biden, who just returned from a nine-day Asian trip, opined that American businessmen probably pressured S&P to change its president because the agency’s Aug. 5 downgrade of the U.S. debt to AA+ plus triple A had a negative impact on the American economy.

However, he stressed that the pressure did not come from Washington, which is investigating S&P’s downgrade.

S&P parent company McGraw-Hill announced on Aug. 22 that current president, Deven Sharma, will step down and Citibank Chief Operating Officer Douglas Petersen will take over beginning Sept. 12.

McGraw-Hill said that the process of replacing Sharma started before the U.S. downgrade, which wiped out $2.5 trillion from the market value of global equities on the first trading day after the S&P rating cut.

Biden, when he was in China, assured Asia that the U.S. will never default on its debt. He made the statement to placate Beijing, which has a large holding of dollar assets.

China, which holds $1 trillion of U.S. debt, called on Washington to do more to reduce its budget deficit. China is the U.S. government’s biggest foreign creditor.

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