Posted on 08/07/2011 5:06:01 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The frustration in the air was palpable. Officials from the credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s were meeting with Congressional leaders on a stifling late day in late July to discuss the thorniest issue in Washington: the effort to cut the nation’s deficit and raise the borrowing limit to avert a default.
S.& P. and two financial industry groups listened to various proposals for debt reduction and warned the lawmakers of the impact a default would have on world markets, according to a Congressional staff member in attendance. The staff member said the agency was providing guidance on what target to hit in budget savings, but lawmakers struggled to understand the agency’s views.
Since that meeting, several lawmakers have publicly questioned whether the ratings agencies have the competence to evaluate the country’s finances, and whether it was appropriate for them to be so deeply involved in discussions of fiscal politics. The criticism reached a fevered pitch after S.& P. announced Friday night that it was downgrading America’s credit rating, a decision that thrust the ratings agencies to the center of the debate over the government’s budget, and prompted renewed scrutiny of an industry that has been harshly criticized since the financial crisis.
The ratings agencies’ purview is traditionally viewed as evaluating data and revenue projections for debt issuers, but they have long taken governance into account for ratings of sovereign nations and corporations. In its announcement Friday night, S.& P. cited the political gridlock in Washington during the debt limit debate as a main reason for its decision. “The gulf between the political parties,” S.& P. said, had reduced its confidence in the government’s ability to manage its finances.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Maybe S&P learned from the poor measures given to all those mortgages.
Well, the Dept. of Education has a SWAT team, for one.
What they don’t tell you is that the premiums only pay for 25% of the actual costs of the program. The other 75% comes from the General Fund, i.e., the taxpayers. The same also holds true for Medicare Part B.
Its the failed ideology of an Islamofascist.
I get my prescriptions from WalMart for $4 each. Quite a good deal, I think. Maybe WalMart should run health care.
Nobody on the thread seems to be reading the article. The implication is not that the downgrade was caused by the actual situation or even the future projections, but because they believe the US has reached a political impasse.
This, of course, will be used to blame conservatives for the whole thing. After all, "compromise" always means that conservatives have to give up their ideas and accept whatever the left wants.
That would be Rosa DeLauro D-CT-3rd.
The "After" photo in a plastic surgeon's office with a horse's ass as the "Before" photo.
If liberals had full control, S&P would be shut down for their actions.
Those that do not agree with liberals must be destroyed.
Exactly. Sounded to me like teenagers complaining about their parents.
Tell Aviv stock market open this AM. Has fallen 12% with trading halted at one time. Look for the Asian and European markets to tank when they open late today our time.
8-8-11
Projection: Stock Market to Crash on Black Monday, 8/8/11
That is what I took as the gist of the article, and it makes me even less enamored of S&P than before (not an easy feat).
It appears to me that most of the ratings agencies have - for quite some time - been so compromised and/or inept that they were unwilling (or unable) to sound an alarm on any number of financial problems. Currently, their chief usefulness appears to consist of laying smokescreens to protect the political ruling class (who are obligated to lob a few brickbats in S&P's direction to maintain the illusion that the whole damnable lot are not in collusion).
Mr. niteowl77
-——LOUISE, JULIE, GRETCHEN -——
How many presstitute girls does it take to write a NY Slimes story.
One to pick up the John, one to pay for the room and one to screw him
How would one go about investigating these leaders dealings with their market portfolios AFTER they spoke with the S&P.
Would they be selling off stuff or moving stuff..based on insider trading?
Talk about deluded.
Gee - they think the People are too stupid to understand a few simple concepts and even agencies that make their living doing so are too stupid. That settles it - the politicians are all freakin' geniuses and everyone is just plain stoooopid...
“Our ship is aground, and the Democrat-manned crew took to the life boats before the passengers could even get off. “
Via the bailouts. Now they can live off the 100’s of billions of dollars it will take to live comfortably when the dollar is worth nearly nothing. Oh, and the Union and Federal pensions are covered for a few more years.
They’ve known this was coming for decades but didn’t have control over the House, Senate and the Presidency to do it. They also thought the new Health Care Bill would bring in trillions for them to play with but didn’t understand the details of the 3,000 page bill. Instead of having trillions more, they put us trillions more in dept.
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