Mystery surrounds details of S&P downgrade [ CNN rejects Axelrods & Kerrys TP blame ]

money.cnn.com ^ | August 8 2011 | By Jennifer Liberto

[NoLibZone]

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- Little is known about key details that led Standard & Poor's to downgrade U.S. debt late Friday, despite its outsized repurcussions.

While the move knocking U.S. debt down a notch from the lofty AAA rating has exacerbated an already skittish stock market and drawn criticism from the White House, key details are a mystery.

S&P doesn't say who, exactly, made the decision at the company; what kind of weight they gave U.S. politics versus ability to pay; or to what extent they felt pressured to downgrade the United States in response to criticism of its downgrades of risky European nations.

Standard & Poor's is one of three major credit rating agencies -- along with Moody's and Fitch -- that make money by giving grades on how likely it believes that a nation, municpal government or company will pay off its debt.

However, the rating companies are unregulated, even as their ratings garner big-time consequences. And while S&P officials have talked about the "flavor of some of the assumptions," including their doubts about the ability of Congress and the White House to work together to cut deficits, they don't have to reveal details of their discussions.

During the financial crisis, these same agencies got hammered for their decision to give top grades to securities based on risky mortgages made to homeowners destined to default on their loans.

And while their grades to sovereign debt haven't been as tarnished as their grades to mortgage-backed securities, critics in both cases have questioned the greater significance for the markets.

[Fresh Wind]

However, the rating companies are unregulated...

You can be sure Obastard will take care of that little problem.

[HangThemHigh]

"We have run deficits averaging 1.5 TRILLION dollars per year since Obama was elected and he and the Democrats want to spend even higher deficits for the next 10 years."

What I'm wondering is why? This isn't a sudden turn of events. Is S&P helping Obozo tear down the country or making dammed sure he doesn't get re-elected with a giant poison pill?

Will S&P not get clobbered in this mess or have they used their inside info to short the US?

[Verginius Rufus]

So many of Obama’s policies are designed to discourage businesses from hiring new employees—regulations, Obamacare, pro-union interference, general uncertainty about administration plans...there must be some people in the administration who realize this keeps the unemployment numbers high. Either they are so committed to the goals of income redistribution and “social justice” that they don’t care about the economic consequences, or they think “the politics of personal destruction” (to use Hillary’s phrase—perhaps she trademarked it) will suffice to win in 2012.

[shield]

I don't think the downgrade is such a bad thing....you've got the dems working to destroy the economy since 2006..then Zero came along and puts it in full tilt boggy...now the whole wide world can see what flakes Zero and the dems are...

America is the engine of the world...they've put so much unsound junk in it...they can't get it started...the world has gotten to have their socialism and whatever other flaking invention they've invented because of the engine of the world...America...so now let the stupids suffer for it.