Posted on 07/27/2011 8:07:53 PM PDT by Revel
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The head of a top credit rating agency says some of the deficit-cutting plans Congress is considering could lower the U.S. debt burden to a level that would allow the country to keep its triple-A credit rating.
Standard & Poor's President Deven Sharma told a congressional panel Wednesday that previous reports indicating Congress would need to make $4 trillion in deficit cuts over 10 years to retain the top credit rating were inaccurate.
(snip)
He suggested in response to questions from Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., that some level of deficit reduction below $4 trillion over a decade could qualify. But he wouldn't be more specific. He said reports that S&P would view only a $4 trillion deficit-cutting plan as credible wasn't accurate.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Read the whole thing. The short of it is that S&P lied. My personal opinion is that they play politics, and they are not credible in a mathematical sense. They proved this originally when they rated junk as AAA. They obviously have no real interest in protecting America from default. So spend away.
Lawmaker probing if Treasury meddled in S&P rating
Reuters ^ | 7/27/11 | Sarah N. Lynch and Rachelle Younglai
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2754892/posts
A congressional panel is examining whether the Obama administration tried to unduly influence Standard & Poor’s before the credit rater revised its outlook on the debt rating to negative.
Randy Neugebauer, the Republican chairman of a House oversight panel, said on Wednesday his staff is probing whether Treasury tried to make material changes to a draft of S&P’s news release announcing the negative outlook revision in April.
“Our concern was if the administration was trying to influence this rating decision some — above what would be a normal practice,” Neugebauer told reporters after a hearing examining oversight of the credit rating industry and the role the raters are playing in U.S. debt talks.
bttt
“He said reports that S&P would view only a $4 trillion deficit-cutting plan as credible wasn’t accurate.”
So then, why didn’t he make an earlier effort to correct this misinformation? I mean, how many days has the apparently erroneous $4T number been floating around out there???? Something is very wrong with this picture.
Chicago politics at work.
Wonder what actual increase in interest rates would ensue from downgrades.
That’s a moot question.
There isn’t going to be any default NOR downgrade.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2754833/posts
I agree. Urkel has no choice by law but to pay which will hold the agencies at bay.
Funny when Congress starts looking at the sleezy Zero Treasury Dept interferring..then comes the word. Nevermind we were just kidding.
Remember, S&P was the ratings agency that was giving Wall St. undeservedly high ratings on the whole real estate bond market that initially caused the recession we are in currently. I find it disgusting that these people now have any credibility. I think they were also behind the trouble with Enron. That doesn’t mean we don’t have a huge problem, it’s just that they caused much of it themselves and now they are a major factor in the recovery.
This is more like threats from the banking industry to destabilize the market place and punish US citizens. I’d say sic SEC on them but banksters own SEC and Congress.
In the mean time, banksters seem uneasy without another bailout in the works and turbo timmy is whining, I like it.
Greece is paying around 12% for its debt; we pay just under 2%. Worst case - our interest rate reaches that of Greece, and our $400 billion/year we spend on interest suddenly becomes $2.4 trillion - basically more than total Federal tax receipts. Then it really is game-over.
You will like this article I posted,
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2754176/posts
What the Ratings Agencies really do. Liars Lexicon - Support Uplift
Golem XIV - Thoughts | Tuesday, 26 July 2011 | David Malone
Posted on 7/26/2011 2:47:39 PM by JerseyHighlander
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
What the Ratings Agencies really do. Liars Lexicon - Support Uplift
The news of the last week or so has been full of Ratings Agencies downgrading banks, bonds, debts and even entire nations. So now seems like a good moment to look at what it is the Ratings Agencies, Moodys, S&P and Fitch, actually rate? What do they consider in coming to their conclusions and can they be said to in any way be objective?
...
The ratings agencies are a paid and bought lobby group who work for the banks. Their job is to create spurious pseudo-scienctific justifications for what the banks want our governments to do.
http://golemxiv-credo.blogspot.com/2011/07/what-ratings-agencies-really-do-liars.html
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