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NEW YORK (AP) -- Standard & Poor's wild month continues. The president of S&P is stepping down just two weeks after the rating agency stripped the United States of its AAA credit rating. At the same time, an activist hedge fund is calling for S&P's parent to break into four separate companies to unlock more value for shareholders. McGraw-Hill Cos., the parent company, said that the resignation of Deven Sharma was not related to Jana Partners' break-up proposal or to S&P's polarizing decision to downgrade its rating on U.S. debt. McGraw-Hill named Citibank's chief operating officer, Douglas Peterson, to the...

Today I am going to do something different, openly praise blatant incompetence. I will list my reasons later but first let me sing the praises of sheer incompetence at Moody's, Fitch, and the S&P (the big 3 rating agencies). Downgrade of U.S. Debt Long Overdue Many are in shock that the S&P downgraded debt of the US from AAA. Not me. It was long overdue. However, the S&P proved it was incompetent in the way it made the downgrade. Pray tell how can a rating agency make a $2 trillion error? The answer is obvious: sheer incompetence. The irony is...

The entire concept of winning the PR war against big government Socialism comes down to the concept of what is popularly called a meme. Just like genes, memes are capable of self-replicating, mutating and responding to targeted pressure. Memes also evolve by means of natural selection via the processes of mutation, variation, and competition. In short, strong memes can reproduce from mind to mind, will weak memes become extinct. The Democrats are very effective at using the meme idea. With most media from newspapers to magazines to cable news leaning left of center to hard left, the media of transmission...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has asked rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) to disclose which employees knew of its decision to downgrade U.S. debt before it was announced last week, the Financial Times said, citing people familiar with the matter. SEC's move is part of a preliminary examination into potential insider trading, the FT said. The inquiry was made by the SEC's examination staff, which has oversight of credit rating firms, one person familiar with the matter told the newspaper. However, the securities regulator is not aware of a leak from an S&P insider, nor was it...

Seriously. All you people on left and right, suspend your disbelief for one minute. Seriously. What if Barack Obama was right and S&P just got it wrong. Here’s what I’m hearing and it gives credence to this theory. S&P, I’m told, began telling some of its clients about the downgrade on Friday morning. That’s why the market was so screwed up on Friday. By Friday afternoon, the Treasury Department told S&P it had made a $2 trillion math mistake. But S&P had already told its clients about the downgrade. So it couldn’t walk it back now without a major loss...

CORRECT: Municipal Bonds Weaken As S&P Announces Widespread Downgrades By Michael Aneiro Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The municipal bond market weakened Tuesday after Standard and Poor's downgraded more than 11,000 public finance issues to keep them in line with its newly lowered rating on federal government debt. S&P said it had lowered to double-A plus from triple-A the ratings on certain public finance debt issues linked to the federal government, matching the downgrade it applied to U.S. government debt last Friday. While the number of issues affected is large, it covers less than 1% of the estimated...

The godfather of the Tea Party Movement is CNBC Financial Editor Rick Santelli. The Tea Party Movement consist of Republicans, Democrats (smart ones), and Independents working together to create the narrative in American politics. Its orginal purpose was to pursue Rick Santelli mantra to stop wasteful government spending. Under Obama, the out-of-control spending is ruining America. It has gone over the cliff when Moody downgraded our credit rating. Hence, the Tea Party keeps Washington in check. Liberals and the GOP Establishment are unable to contain the The Tea Party Movement. The movement has spead to all corners of America. I...

Alliteration aside… Given the recent downgrade of the United States credit rating by S&P one would have expected our exalted leader to use the bully pulpit to infuse some confidence into an already battered economy. Perhaps to speak directly to the problem, spending, and provide a coherent path forward. Of course this is President Obama and such a thing seems to be beyond his scope of expertise. What we got instead was the same old trite and tired finger pointing and hollow platitudes. The President scarcely made it through his first sentence before he abdicated his responsibility for the current...

Alternate headline: “Feds leave dead fish on S&P’s doorstep.” And if you think this is shady, check out how Italy handled its own threat of a downgrade from S&P. Good lord. What happens if they downgrade Egypt? Does David Beers end up in the cage with Mubarak?Note to Fitch from the Senate Banking Committee: Choose wisely. Following S&P’s Friday night decision to reduce the nation’s credit standing from AAA to AA+, the panel has begun gathering information about the downgrade, according to a committee aide. Reuters first reported the committee’s interest in the downgrade.The unprecedented downgrade of the nation’s debt...

<p>It is a disgraceful and embarrassing situation when the United States finds itself justifiably chastised in the same tone normally reserved for near-bankrupt economies.</p> <p>Be wary of the efforts President Obama makes to “fix” the debt problem. The more he tries to “fix” things, the worse they get because his “solutions” always involve spending more, taxing more, growing government, and increasing debt.</p>

In the coming days we’ll sort through the repercussions of S&P’s downgrade of our credit rating, including concerns about the impact a potential interest rate increase would have on our ability to service our suffocating $14.5 trillion debt. I’m surprised that so many people seem surprised by S&P’s decision. Weren’t people paying attention over the last year or so when we were getting warning after warning from various credit rating agencies that this was coming? I’ve been writing and speaking about it myself for quite some time.

(CNN)-Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin took to her Facebook page Monday to warn Americans about President Barack Obama’s plan to improve the nation’s economy. “Be wary of the efforts President Obama makes to ‘fix’ the debt problem,” she said. “The more he tries to ‘fix’ things, the worse they get.” A “surprised” Palin sounded off on reaction to the nation’s credit rating downgrade and chided “so-called smart people” who doubted her forecast of economic repercussions. “I’m surprised that so many people seem surprised by S&P’s decision,” Palin wrote. “Weren’t people paying attention over the last year or so when we...

Makes me want to puke..

Back in April Timmy Geithner said there was no chance that the US credit rating would take a hit. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Tuesday there is "no risk" the U.S. will lose its top credit rating amid a new analysis that revised its outlook on American debt to "negative." Geithner took to the airwaves of financial news networks to push back against a report Monday by Standard & Poor's that lowered its outlook on U.S. debt to "negative," reflecting political uncertainty over whether lawmakers will reach an agreement to address long-term debt. There is no chance that the U.S....

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Does anybody now doubt that this is on purpose? I mean, after all, Barack Obama inherits a AAA credit rating from George W. Bush, and look what he does to it. Obama is always running around complaining and whining and moaning about all that he inherited from George W. Bush. Well, he inherited a AAA credit rating, an unemployment rate of 5.7%. Does anybody doubt that this is on purpose? Well, look, my credit rating doesn't suck. There are a lot of individual Americans whose credit ratings aren't in trouble. The United States has never been in...

The S&P downgrade was not as much a comment on the numbers of credit service as a comment on the political process. The political process is about confronting the probability of a hyper-inflationary collapse of our currency if fiscal irresponsibility, entitlement spending and bank bailout mentality are not addressed. If the credit rating firms had continued the charade of AAA quality, it would merely enable the not sustainable march toward hyper-inflation. Ultimately, the S&P downgrade of Treasuries is a downgrade of all dollar denominated assets. If we can print dollars to pay Treasury debt, it is the currency that is...

House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said he was "not ver surprised" by S&P's decision to downgrade the nation’s credit rating and said he would serve on the debt 'supercommittee' if chosen by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). "I'm not very surprised of this downgrade. We more or less saw this coming because we're on the wrong fiscal path," Ryan said on Fox News Sunday. He said the decision was a warning shot that "Washington has not gotten its fiscal house in order." Ryan also expressed concern that a rise in interest rates would add to the deficit. "If...

Leave it Michael Moore: “Pres Obama, show some guts & arrest the CEO of Standard & Poors. These criminals brought down the economy in 2008& now they will do it again,” Moore profoundly tweeted Monday. Read the full article: http://thedc.com/rk60eL

CNBC just broke in and told the audience that the President has requested airtime and will speak to the nation at 1300hrs EST (12 noon central, 10 AM PST) on the US national debt downgrade.Developing...

S&P's Beers: We Don't Have a Hit List Published: Sunday, 7 Aug 2011 | 8:58 PM ET By: Deepanshu Bagchee Supervising Digital Editor, CNBC Asia After Standard and Poor's historic downgrade of the U.S.'s credit rating to AA-plus from triple-A, fears are growing that other countries may be next, most notably France, which is facing big costs from a bailout of troubled Euro zone countries. But the global head of sovereign ratings at S&P says the agency does not have a target list and will downgrade ratings as and when it sees deteriorating economic performance or debt burdens. "We don't...