What Standard & Poor's got right

[busenbust]

What Standard & Poor's got right: Its unpopular downgrade of U.S. debt sparked a market crash. But the move reflects an unfortunate political reality.



^^^ the other side -- it's a 1 page article folks -- worth a read.


http://www.salon.com/technology/feature/2011/08/11/s_p_market_crash/index.html

As Michael Hirsh points out in the National Journal, S&P wasn't alone in lowering its rating of U.S. In mid-July, Egan-Jones also downgraded the U.S. one notch, to AA+. Egan-Jones is small and relatively unknown, but its work is arguably of a higher quality: unlike the big three, the firm warned investors about toxic assets before the 2008 financial crisis.

Egan-Jones downgraded U.S. debt because, in its view, a virulently polarized Washington is not capable of tackling the challenge posed by the large and mounting debt. "I don't think the political leaders have a handle on what [the] country is faced with. They still don't understand the underlying factors," Managing Director Sean Egan told Hirsch.

That, in fact, was essentially the same rationale that S&P deployed in downgrading the U.S.

 

[busenbust]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/opinion/the-hijacked-crisis.html

:goodpost: Paul Krugman .

 

[abejarano12]

The only thing they got right was the that both sides are not willing to work together to fix big problems

 

[E-Ann-Hilden]

Or why have we been downgraded when France, Germany or Great Britain have not solved their economic issues with rising debt?

 

[Supafly]

Or why have we been downgraded when France, Germany or Great Britain have not solved their economic issues with rising debt?

I think it's not because they did better, more like they did not as bad.