S&P and Moody’s were raided by the Italian police. That was a clear message..they had to downgrade, but they will say if was due to lack of agreement on what to do about the debt..not the level of the debt. They are hostages of the Govt’s. The real downgrade came with QE2 when the Fed became the purchaser of last resort..and will start doing more of the same.
Here’s some of the reasons given....looks like they didn’t like the deal after all.....Drudge has the Pdf, it’s a interesting read IMO. Confirms these statements as well.
S&P decided to lower the AAA rating, held by the United States for 70 years, to AA+ ...”after”.... a bipartisan debt deal signed into law this week failed to assuage ‘concerns about the nation’s growing spending.’ First time in 7 years of a triple a rating.
S&P’s action is the most tangible vote of disapproval so far by Wall Street on the deal between President Obama and Congress to cut the deficit by at least $2.1 trillion over 10 years. S&P has said that it wanted at least $4 trillion of deficit reduction.