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AKA: JUST MORE WALL STREET SHENANIGANS!
Hopefully, you haven’t been running around with your hair on fire, screaming THE SKY IS FALLING, THE SKY IS FALLING!!! Because, guess what? It ain’t! Standard and Poors is just another Wall Street “institution” that says, and does, what it wants to, in order to suit their own – and certain benefactors’ – needs.
A great article on AlterNet explains:
“Most people believe that the ratings agencies base their analyses on some set of cold, objective criteria, but that’s not the case. A group of Wall Street analysts . . . get together and discuss various factors, including, in this case, the political scene, and come to a consensus.”
And, that: “According to a Senate investigation concluded earlier this year — a probe that was greeted with a collective “ho-hum” by the corporate media — S&P and Moody’s, another leading agency, “issued the AAA ratings that made … mortgage backed securities … seem like safe investments, helped build an active market for those securities, and then, beginning in July 2007, downgraded the vast majority of those AAA ratings to junk status.” And when they did, it “precipitated the collapse of the [mortgage-backed securities] markets and, perhaps more than any other single event, triggered the financial crisis.”
So, some of the same guys who told all of us that everything was A-Okay with those (questionably) mortgage backed “securities” – because it benefited their golf buddies – are now telling us that The U.S. might not be able to meet it’s future obligations??? They have already proven to be un-objective, untrustworthy charlatans, but most of us were unaware of the Senate investigation’s findings. And, our collective memories are so short these days, that even those of us who were in the know have either forgiven or forgotten.
This is all politically motivated by the big HAVES, at the expense of the rest of us, the have NOTS. But, I think that all of you are better off getting the full benefit of the article by . . . reading the article.
So, here it is:
Don’t knee jerk. You’ll only regret it, while someone – who was already much better off than you – laughs all the way to the bank!
— YUR
Related articles
- S&P’s History of Relentless Political Advocacy (news.firedoglake.com)
Unclerave's Wordy Weblog 
Rejected Bail Out
Published September 30, 2008 Commentary , Current Events Leave a CommentTags: Bail Out, Finance, Mortgage Crisis, Paulson, Wall Street
Subtitle: “Is it any wonder you are too cool to fool?” – David Bowie, Fame
The architect/author of the bail out bill was George W. Bush appointee Henry (Hank) Paulson. An ex-Goldman Sachs chief executive, whose comp package in 2005 was $37Mil, and was (projected) $16.4Mil in 2006, before being named United States Secretary of the Treasury on June 3, 2006. His estimated net worth is north of $700Mil(US).
With this little bit of wording, in the initial version:
Sec. 8. Review.
“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”
. . . is there any wonder why anyone responsible would be hesitant to approve anything submitted by this man? A guy FROM Wall Street wants to give $700Bil (of our tax $s) TO Wall Street, and he has the stones to insert such a Rovian/Bush escape clause??? From this point on the guy’s credibility (like his boss’) was shot.
Bush Job Approval Survey Date Apprv% Disapprv% Unsure%
Even IF the version that came up for vote today had all the necessary provisions for protecting the tax payers – and we’re hearing there were still substantial loopholes – there was always going to be a George Bush/Hank Paulson stink to this thing. They could very easily remove half of this stink if Paulson RESIGNS (Are we to believe that – for the past two years – Hank didn’t know what was going on at: Bear Stearns, Lehman Bros, Merrill Lynch, Washington Mutual, Wachovia Bank, etc.?) and they get someone who doesn’t smell like a fox, working on the inside of the hen house.
YUR