"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