Can anybody explain what Standard and Poor's was up to yesterday..

[Demoiselle]

I reacted viscerally, and with a lot of anger. It seemed to me that they were just pissing on Obama, mostly, since the deficit mantra has been so co-opted by the right wing, kill-the-New-Deal crowd. I also shouted at my radio..."And where were you bastards when all your pals were throwing away our money on credit defaut swaps (whatever the fuck they are!) and Derivatives (whatever the fuck THEY are) and you never so much as murmured a warning!!!"

I simply can't see anybody on Wall Street as "non-partisan" anymore.
Please educate me. talk me down, whatever.

[meegbear]

1. Heer's a good story on it ...

Standard & Poor's Is Playing Us For Fools

[DCKit]

2. K&R for both the question, and your answer. nt

[Demoiselle]

3. Thank you, Meegbear.

That's a really good essay. I'm going to pass it on. and I just hope that people are paying attention!

[enlightenment]

6. Fascinating. Thank you for the link.

I find it increasingly bizarre that, as a planet of nation-states, we (collectively) allow ourselves to be held hostage by corporations like S&P, Moody's, and Fitch.

All three of those companies got their start in the Gilded Age, selling information on the railroads. Big whoop if you weren't a member of the investor class.

Now they control NATIONS. Really? They snap their fingers and downgrade NATIONS?

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if the nations of the world got together and decided to simply ignore these credit rating agencies.

I read an editorial recently, written by the President of S&P - the utter hubris of this nasty goon had me absolutely gob-smacked:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703959804575006694196038802.html

[fredamae]

4. They are playin' politic's to the masses

in order to "make their case"...which I'm sure we will see coming out in the upcoming RW arguments in a bad attempt to justify cutting SS, Medicare, Food Stamps etc, in the coming days/weeks.

[kenny blankenship]

5. It's called a preemptive strike.

To keep government from nosing around their shady dealings -as in whatever could have induced ratings agencies like S&P to rate subprime mortgage backed securities as AAA safe as Treasury bonds?- they are declaring the government a bad credit risk. The coincidental timing of the release of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report this week is not just coincidental. Wall Street's most deeply entrenched interests are warning government to back the fuck up.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/15/goldman-sachs-levin-investigation_n_849708.html

[ellenfl]

7. doing their corporate masters' bidding? eom

[sinkingfeeling]

8. Trying to help their GOP buddies pass their horrible budget?