Posted on 08/07/2011 5:33:43 PM PDT by mlocher
A credit rating is an informed opinion. Nothing more. Nothing less.
That helps explain why one major credit rating agency -- Standard & Poor's -- has downgraded the United States, while another -- Moody's (Symbol : MCO
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) -- has chosen to affirm its credit rating with caveats.
Both agencies had the same essential set of facts about U.S. debt: There's a lot of it now. There's a lot more of it to come. And there's very little in the way of actual policy today that looks likely to seriously change that outlook.
Where the agencies differ, however, is in their degree of skepticism that Congress will follow through on meaningful debt reduction.
S&P is pessimistic. It points to the reckless debt ceiling debate, which artificially tied the longer term need to reduce the debt with the immediate need to raise the borrowing limit to ensure the United States makes good on all its bills.
"The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed." S&P said Friday in downgrading the United States to AA+ from AAA.
In some ways, it's easy to see why S&P is so pessimistic. Throughout the struggle to raise the debt ceiling, some lawmakers repeatedly suggested it would be better to risk default and not raise the ceiling until Congress passed a spending-cuts-only plan to reduce debt. (Read: Who is in the AAA club?)
"We clearly pose more of a risk to investors than we did previously. We're the only developed nation in the world that talks openly about default," said Donald Marron, a former acting director of the Congressional Budget Office.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.fidelity.com ...
Yes, it is.
S&P didn’t go nearly far enough. Treasuries are worth about a _C_ at best, but we can be sure that socialists will continue to rob bond investors.
“Rating downgrade: Did S&P get it right?”
No, because AA still implies that they expect the debt to someday be repaid. IDIOTS !!!
CNN whistling past the graveyard.
na.... they messed up they should of downgraded Obama’s economy to junk.
LMAO!
I stopped right there. I couldn't go any farther. LOL!
- Obama: “S&P made 2T error”
- Axelrod: “TP’s fault”
- Geithner: “Didnt really happen.”
- DNC- “Taxes too low and spend more”
- Chicoms- “The days of borrowing your way out of messes is over”
Obama’s fiduciary competence rating: F-
If CNN actually investigated or analyzed an issue their own ratings would not be in the tank as are Obama’s ratings.
At some point CNN is going to realize that carrying water for Obama is hazardous to their financial health.
The Democrat party downgrade is just another brilliant gift from His Hope and Changiness.
Downgraded?
This is the change you voted for?
S and P’s prez made it clear. They wanted to see 4 trillion in cuts in the next 5 years. Only plan that would have done that was shut out by Harry Reid. Tea Party not to blame!
It is hazardous. I don't think CNN and its owner cares.
- MSNBC: “S&P are racist”
S&P must have been awfully optimistic in 1941 since the bonds weren't payable in Yen or Reichsmarks. I don't think that it was considered a sure thing that we would win WW2 in 1941.
The dollar has been declining and the price of gold increasing since 2001. Somebody isn't surprised by this.
Let’s get it straight liberals. This is not the tea party’s fault. WE WERE TRYING TO BALANCE THE BUDGET IN ORDER TO AVOID THIS. YOU WERE THE ONES FIGHTING US EVERY GD STEP OF THE WAY YOU OBNOXIOUS, DELIRIOUS, OVER SPENDING, SOCIALIST *%#@s. We tried like hell to cut spending. But you convinced yourselves that spending more than you take in is a perfectly reasonable acceptable course of action. This is your fault liberals and you will most certainly be held accountable.
Or could S&P be playing power politics for the ‘12 elections?
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