Free Republic

What has been distinct about Barack Obama's presidency is his inclination to operate in continuous campaign mode, to deflect attention away from his policy failures and to undermine opposition by politicizing the issues and policy responses he chooses to take up. So now with the president's attorney general Eric Holder having just announced the filing of a $5 billion Department of Justice suit against Standard & Poor's—charging that fraudulent ratings were made on risky mortgage bonds that went into default during the financial crisis of 2008—one has to wonder what the political motivation might be. First, why now? Why has...

Where Credit Is DueA new study of the largest issuers of corporate debt shows that recent gains in creditworthiness are more fragile than you think.Ronald Fink, CFO Magazine November 01, 2003 Unless you're willing to bet that stock prices bear little or no relation to corporate financial strength, you're wise to take the recent improvement in the capital markets with a large grain of salt. In fact, a new study shows that major issuers of corporate debt have not shored up their balance sheets as much as is widely believed.To be sure, other signs suggest that corporate creditworthiness has improved...