Sunday, August 07, 2011

Who the Eff are Standard & Poor's?

Explainer: Your 5-minute guide to the S&P, U.S. credit rating and why it matters | Poynter.


Standard & Poor’s gave its first credit rating to the United States in 1941.
Standard & Poor’s gave its first credit rating to the United States in 1941. The AAA rating matched the one given previously to the government by S&P’s predecessor institutions, Standard Statistics and Poor’s Publishing. It temporarily downgraded the outlook to “negative” following the attack at Pearl Harbor.
It temporarily downgraded the outlook to “negative” following the attack at Pearl Harbor.
The credit rating is Standard & Poor’s opinion of a creditor’s ability to meet its financial obligations, including its debt.


…the government won’t be the only one paying higher interest rates. Consumer loan rates usually follow the government’s rates so interest rates on car, home and student loans could increase as well. This increase would be a bitter pill for an ailing economy to swallow.
History shows that Standard & Poor's stands ready to denigrate America for the worse possible reasons at the worse possible times.

I can barely believe they lowered oUr rating after Pearl Harbor. They must view 9-11 as a missed opportunity.

Saturday, August 06, 2011

"Eff! Standard & Poor's And The Elephant They Rode In On!

S.&P. Downgrades Debt Rating of U.S. For the First Time - NYTimes.com:

"The credit rating agencies have been trying to restore their credibility after missteps leading to the financial crisis. A Congressional panel called them “essential cogs in the wheel of financial destruction” after their wildly optimistic models led them to give top-flight reviews to complex mortgage securities that later collapsed. A downgrade of federal debt is the kind of controversial decision that critics have sometimes said the agencies are unwilling to make.

On the other hand, S.& P. is acting in the face of evidence that investors consider Treasuries among the safest investments in the world. Yields rose before the Congressional deal on fears of default and a possible downgrade. But after a deal was struck, yields sank as money poured into Treasuries as a safe haven from sharply falling stocks and the turmoil of the European debt markets.

On Friday, the price of Treasuries fell sharply in heavy selling, and yields rose, reversing the moves of recent sessions. The 10-year Treasury note ended the day with a yield of 2.56 percent."

This is all we need. another party willing to savage the American economy just to make a point. S & P is willing to threaten everyone's credit and many jobs in order to avoid scrutiny of their own far more damaging, financially self serving, triple A ratings of hot air. They've already cost America and the rest of the world trillions of dollars and jobs by the hundreds of thousands.

It's like foreclosing on a home wear the residents never, ever missed a house payment because the couple had a loud public argument about the security of their preteenager's college fund.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/06/business/us-debt-downgraded-by-sp.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2&pagewanted=all
con·cept: August 2011