Free Republic

BRUSSELS—The European Commission is leaning toward proposing a ban on the issuing of sovereign credit ratings for countries in bailout talks, a top official said on Thursday. "I think it's legitimate to have a special treatment when a country is in negotiation or is covered by an international solidarity program with the IMF or a European solidarity" program, said Michel Barnier, European internal market commissioner. Should the commission, the executive arm of the European Union, come to view these sovereign ratings are inappropriate, "we could ban it or suspend the rating for the necessary time frame," he said. "I am...

So let us get this straight: in America when you dare to tell the truth, your career is over, while if you are a corrupt, lying, incompetent tax evader you not only get to be Treasury Secretary but likely will be on for life as long as you do the one duty you are entrusted with: pander to the interests of the Too Big To Fail financial institutions We should be speechless but at this point we are well beyond the point of even caring. The only question left in this entire farce is how long before S&P issues the...

PARIS - France's AAA rating is stable, ratings agency Standard and Poor's chief European economist Jean-Michel Six told France Inter radio on Sunday. < SNIP > Six said that political leadership and good governance are a major factor in ratings agencies' deliberations about rating reviews.

"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."

Executives at the country's leading credit-rating companies, whose optimistic assessments of risky investments helped fuel the financial meltdown, have privately acknowledged for more than a year that conflicts of interest contributed to the industry's failures, according to internal company documents released Wednesday. The disclosures emerged at a heated congressional hearing where lawmakers grilled the heads of the three major rating companies, accusing them of betraying the public by letting corporate greed trump their responsibility to provide unbiased appraisals for investors. * * * In one of the confidential documents obtained by the committee, Raymond McDaniel, chief executive of ratings firm...

Fitch Ratings has lowered State of California general obligations to 'A' from 'AA'. The action affects $25.2 billion outstanding bonds. In addition, ratings assigned to lease obligations of the state have been lowered to 'A-' from 'A+'. The bonds are issued by the Board of Public Works, the Franchise Tax Board, East Bay State Building Authority, Los Angeles State Building Authority, Oakland State Building Authority, Riverside County Public Financing Authority, San Francisco State Building Authority, San Bernardino Joint Powers Financing Authority (California Department of Transportation) and Sacramento City Financing Authority. All of the ratings remain on Rating Watch Negative. The...