[icanhasbailout]

According to the market, the USA is BBB rated credit right now. S&P didn't tell even a good part of the truth, which is basically that the US' books are an accounting nightmare riddled with fraud, unfunded obligations, falsely stated numbers (e.g. inflation rate, unemploment rate) and other horrors that would turn a green shade white.

Now this is a pretty obvious political hit - the other major ratings agencies were playing MBS-rating games, relying on un-meetable CDS obligations and security tiering for risk sanitization - so the message is unmistakable.

But the problem for the Obama gang is that it's a public political hit. Who is going to believe another US rating agency now? They will ask: is that a real rating or is that the trade-off for not getting prosecuted? They will then look to foreign ratings agencies for real ratings, and find that lo and behold, the actual fiscal situation is that we are a BBB with a downgrade watch.

If they thought AA+ was a problem, wait until these thug tactics knock the country into junk status.

[belzu2010]

Do you place the authority of S&P over that of the US government?

The situation is an interesting one, and reminiscent of Andrew Jackson’s situation, in the 1800s.

Think about it: A foreign entity, a corporation, has threatened the United States with a financial weapon. I mean, ignore whether the rating is fair or not; what matters here is that there is a power play from a foreign entity that threatens our country.

What do you think should be done, all fairness aside?