Treasury Disputes U.S. Downgrade

An intense back-and-forth has started between the U.S. Treasury and Standard & Poor's, after the rating agency downgraded the nation's credit rating for the first time in 70 years. A senior Treasury official told China's Xinhua news agency that S&P's "analysis is poorly and hastily done," and acting assistant secretary for economic policy, John Bellows, also lashed out at the agency on a blog post. Prior to Bellows’ comments, S&P staunchly defended its decision Saturday, saying the downgrade analysis was "objective."