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...Reflections on the downgrading of Chicago’s bond rating and the mind of a Chicago politician… If you have ever attended a good old-fashioned museum, you may have seen this popular type of exhibit: the “reconstructed rooms” of the past: The Thorne Miniature Rooms of the Art Institute of Chicago… the Streets of Old Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry (down the hall from the ice cream parlor!)… and best of all, the old Milwaukee street scene in the Milwaukee County Museum. As museum-goers walk past each room – we can’t go in, we can only peer through the...

Ford Motor has regained its investment grade rating from Moody’s, triggering the release of all the assets the US carmaker put up to secure its loans, including its iconic blue oval logo. Alan Mulally, Ford chief executive, called the upgrade “an important milestone” for the carmaker, which emerged less scathed than rivals from the 2008 crisis that led to bankruptcy and government bailouts for General Motors and Chrysler.

Moody’s Investors Services announced Friday that is is placing Penn State’s Aa1 revenue bond rating on review for possible downgrade as it assess credit risks stemming from the sexual abuse scandal. In light of the criminal charges against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and two senior university officials, as well as the dismissal of President Graham Spanier and head Coach Joe Paterno, Moody’s said it will, over the next several months, evaluate the “potential scope of reputational and financial risk arising from these events.” While it may take years for the full impact of the events of this week...

Oh, man, what a bad day for New Jersey.First, Abercrombie & Fitch pays “Jersey Shore” “star” The Situation not to wear its clothing, and now Fitch — no relation — has gone and downgraded the entire state. What is it with these Fitches? Is anybody investigating the connection here? Full disclosure: I live in New Jersey.Fitch, the rater, not the retailer, writes: Fitch Ratings downgrades the State of New Jersey’s outstanding general obligation (GO) bonds to ‘AA-’ from ‘AA’.Fitch also downgrades to ‘AA-’ from ‘AA’ the rating on the Garden State Preservation Trust’s open space revenue bonds. Additionally, Fitch downgrades...

As was predicted last week, China's rating agency Dagong, unlike its worthless western counterparts, has come through on its threat to downgrade the US in the event a subpar debt ceiling deal was hammered out. As Xinhua reports, 'Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. said Wednesday it has cut the credit rating of the United States from A+ to A with a negative outlook after the U.S. federal government announced that the country's debt limit would be increased." Confirming that not being branded a NRSRO is the only thing that allows a rater to still think straight (and not in terms...

Standard & Poor's has removed the immediate risk of a downgrade of California's debt rating, saying the state's plan to balance its budget was "largely realistic." S&P on Thursday raised its outlook for California’s rating to “stable” from “negative.” The rating, A-minus, still is the lowest of any of the 50 states. “The negative outlook had been linked to the possibility of a recurring cash deficiency that we now believe the enactment of the fiscal 2012 budget is likely to mitigate for the most part,” S&P said in a report. “Because the state has improved the structural alignment between its...

Moody's is warning that unless we change our ways, our bonds will be downgraded. This doesn't mean it will happen or happen anytime soon. We're not going to slide to junk bond status tomorrow, although if Obama can't be stopped, who knows where our rating will end up. But if you listen to these guys, they don't sound real confident we'll be able to change. The Wall Street Journal: "Moody's Investors Service said in a report on Thursday that the U.S. will need to reverse the expansion of its debt if it hopes to keep its 'Aaa' rating. 'We have...

Struggling through its worst-ever budget crisis, Chicago has suffered the first in what could be a series of body blows: a downgrade in the all-important bond-rating that determines city borrowing costs. Citing a record, $654.7 million budget shortfall and Mayor Daley’s “accelerated use of reserves to balance operations,” Fitch Ratings has reduced its rating on $6.8 billion in outstanding general obligation bonds from AA-plus to AA. The ratings outlook is negative. the ticking time bomb created by $14.57 billion in city pension liabilities.

"Whenever you get new laws and "reform," unintended consequences are sure to follow. Usually they take awhile. Not so with Dodd-Frank. WSJ reports that Ford has already yanked a bond deal, because the ratings agencies, fearing legal liability, won't let the automaker puts their ratings in the prospectus, making a sale impossible. So did Dodd-Frank just kill the bond market? Well, probably not.. Regulators will likely find some way around this impasse, but it's still amusing to see the bill INSTANTLY slow down the gears of capitalism (or at least capital raising) as its fiercest critics might have suggested."

Pity the poor Federal Reserve. The Fed's policymaking Open Market Committee meets today, and in all likelihood we will learn around 2:15 p.m. that the Fed won't change interest rates, but it will reiterate that the end is near for a policy of printing money to purchase mortgages. This so-called "quantitative easing" operation is a lab experiment developed by mad economic scientists led by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. It, along with the enormous federal budget deficit, is now threatening the US's triple-A bond rating. The experiment began last year when the Fed, out of room for regular interest rate easings,...

Congress Examines Municipal Bond Ratings, Bond Insurance Industry The fast-spreading U.S. mortgage crisis prompted lawmakers Wednesday to explore problems with municipal bonds, painting a bleak outlook for bond insurers that one official said imposes a "secret Wall Street tax" on state and local taxpayers. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is investigating how credit rating agencies grade the risk of municipal bonds and said the existing system is "quite possibly illegal." He joined other state officials in calling for changes at a House committee hearing. Billions of dollars could be saved by city and state governments if credit raters adopted a...

Ford Motor Co. shares took a hit Wednesday, pressured as Standard & Poor's pushed the automaker's credit rating deeper into junk status... At last check, shares of the second-biggest U.S. car manufacturer were down 13 cents, or 2%, at $6.41 -- just 3 cents above their lowest level in nearly 13 years. The ratings agency downgraded $151 billion in Ford debt by one notch, to a B+ rating, and thus put the rating four levels into speculative-grade territory, with a negative outlook. "Notwithstanding its multiyear plan to turn around the performance of its North American automotive operations, " S&P said,...

Until Californians can agree, bond rating will be stuck at the bottom of the charts California boasts one of the world's largest economies, but the state's reputation is tarnished by a tax system that is often volatile, by a budget process that tends toward gridlock and by a habit of borrowing when it can't balance the books. All of which helps explain why California has the lowest bond rating of the 50 states -- a dubious distinction it might soon surrender to Louisiana, which can blame its predicament on natural -- not politically inflicted -- causes. "Five years ago, California...

SACRAMENTO – After being pounded by television ads and seeing his popularity plunge, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger basked in some rare good news yesterday as he signed a new $117.4 billion state budget. The budget is the earliest in five years, has the support of Democratic legislative leaders who joined the governor at the signing ceremony and received an endorsement from Wall Street with a bond-rating upgrade for the state. The governor and the leaders, echoing remarks last week, hope the bipartisan momentum will lead to a compromise avoiding an all-out war over the governor's "Year of Reform" initiatives on the...

Tom Ferrick Jr. | Another excuse not to cut costs Inquirer Columnist Bad news for the City of Philadelphia. Fitch Ratings this week dropped the city's credit rating by a notch, from A- to BBB+. To quote the financial rating company: "The downgrade reflects poor revenue growth and significant increases in fixed costs and public safety spending, leading to the depletion of the city's reserve position." Those Fitch guys sure do know how to write crackling prose, don't they? The bad news is good news for the Street administration. City Council is back and is itching to cut taxes once...

LOS ANGELES – In the first positive news for California's battered credit ratings in three years, two bond rating agencies issued slight improvements Wednesday to the state's credit status. The minor boosts came a day after voters approved a $15 billion bond measure championed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pay off $14 billion in short-term debt. State officials called Tuesday's bond the largest in U.S. municipal bond history. State Controller Steve Westley called the improvements "a sign that Wall Street is pleased to see California beginning to head back in the right direction financially." Standard and Poors, which last July...

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 12, 2004--Fitch Ratings lowers the rating assigned to Golden State Tobacco Corporation's enhanced tobacco settlement asset-backed bonds, series 2003 B to 'BBB' from 'A-'. Certain of the maturities are insured; for these maturities, the action pertains to the underlying ratings. The rating remains on Rating Watch Negative. While pledged tobacco settlement revenues are the expected source of payment, ultimate security and the rating are based on the covenant that the director of finance will request the governor to include in the annual state budget act an appropriation for the full amount of debt service and operating expenses...

UPDATE 5 -(Adds treasurer reaction paragraphs 9-10) SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jan 9 (Reuters) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled a state budget on Friday that he said would rescue California from its fiscal crisis by slashing $4.6 billion in spending while avoiding unpopular tax hikes. Even so, Schwarzenegger, a Republican who won office on a wave of voter discontent with politics as usual, warned that the most populous U.S. state could still face bankruptcy unless voters approve a $15-billion bond issue in March. “If we do not control spending today, we will put every program at risk, and California will be bankrupt,”...

Gov.'s Wins Leave Deficit on Hold Political triumphs haven't made problems go away. The state's credit has sagged further and financial pressure has increased. SACRAMENTO — Arnold Schwarzenegger wins. Victory has been a constant in the life of the bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-politician. And it has been the political story of his first month as California governor. Schwarzenegger has shown a knack for fashioning political triumphs: repealing a tripling of the car tax, rescinding a law granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, making a deal with Democrats on a deficit bond and balanced budget constitutional amendment, and deftly going around the Legislature to...

Update 1 - Fitch cuts California's bond rating to BBB Thu December 18, 2003 04:35 PM ET (Adds more details, background) NEW YORK, Dec 18 (Reuters) - California's credit rating took another blow on Thursday when Fitch Ratings cut the state's $30 billion of debt three notches to BBB, citing a widening budget gap and planned deficit funding. California, the nation's most populous and most economically productive state, has the lowest bond rating in the nation. Newly elected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently reached agreement with the legislature to fund the state's estimated $20 billion budget gap partly using $15 billion...