U.S. credit downgrade 'may very well be warranted': Fmr. State Department deputy chief economist

• Treasury's intervention in bond markets is a clear pattern, not an isolated incident, distorting market signals.
• The U.S. has doubled its debt in the last decade, and long-term growth is hindered by factors like immigration policy.
• If the U.S. economy were a company, its credit rating would be 'quite a bit worse' due to fiscal indiscipline and lack of resilience in debt markets.

Philip Luck, former Deputy Chief Economist at the U.S. State Department, expresses significant concern over the U.S. Treasury's interventionist approach in bond markets and the nation's mounting fiscal pressures. He argues that the U.S. economy's fundamentals are deteriorating, making a credit downgrade 'may very well be warranted' by rating agencies.