Quote of the day: "S&P might do something stupid."

[regnaD kciN]

Even though the major rating agencies have reiterated France's AAA rating, "there's growing concern that France could get downgraded," said Tom Schrader, managing director at Stifel Nicolaus. "There's fear that S&P might do something stupid."

You mean, stupider than a $2 trillion math error???

Or, maybe, is it the sense that S&P has stopped simply assessing credit-worthiness impartially, and is now beginning to use their rating as a weapon to coerce countries into re-shaping their economic system in the direction S&P might prefer?

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. Meh. I don't fault them.

I think it was stupid for congress to ask CBO to score the debt deal with the assumption that the Bush tax cuts would expire in 2012.

S&P said "we'll believe it when we see it" and took that assumption out of their analysis.

Given the last 3 years, who are you banking on being correct?

[regnaD kciN]

5. I absolutely fault them...

...for "changing the rules" this time. How many times has the debt ceiling been raised without a question from the credit rating agencies? And where were their voices when Bush was cutting taxes while carrying on two "off-budget" wars? The question has always been simply "would the U.S. be able to pay its bond obligations?" Is there any doubt that the answer to this was and remains affirmative? The only fear at this time was that we would default, not because we couldn't pay, but because Boehner and the teabaggers wouldn't let us pay. So why does S&P suddenly change the rules and start demanding specific economic policies ("cut $4 trillion or else") this time around, if not that it has decided to "be stupid" and bully insufficiently-capitalistic governments into toeing the line or risking economic disaster?

[Kennah]

2. I think the quote was a compliment

"Something stupid" is less bad than "Something really stupid".

[zbdent]

3. Does the S and P stand for

Stu & Pid?

[lonestarlib]

4. They're pushing Italy awfully hard.

[ddeclue]

6. Perhaps they'd like to borrow my TI-86 calculator for instance..

Seems theirs has a problem of some sort...

:rofl: