So what’s up with Firedog Lake and its petition to the SEC to revoke Standard & Poor’s authority as a credit rating agency? Standard & Poors has gotten into the political arena doing its best to be a kingmaker for the 2012 elections and to decide the course of our economy on behalf of Wall Street and the super wealthy, that’s what. S&P threatened to “downgrade the US credit rating if cuts were not made to Social Security and Medicare to reduce the deficit,” blatantly ignoring Social Security’s long-term surplus of $22 trillion, the needs of the elderly, and more.
According to FDL, “Then, two days after a bipartisan Senate committee found S&P’s misleading mortgage ratings to be a ‘key cause’ of the 2008 financial crisis, the agency issued another downgrade threat.” …
A few months later, after the SEC announced they would investigate agencies like S&P for fraud, S&P issued yet ANOTHER downgrade threat, this time with the arbitrary ransom of $4 trillion in deficit reduction which would likely include deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits.
Is S&P blackmailing the White House into absolving them of any responsibility for the 2008 crash by threatening downgrades every time there’s an attempt to hold their feet to the fire? If that’s the case, big benefit cuts are on their way.
While everyone talks about the political fall-out for both Republicans and Democrats over the debt ceiling issue and the subsequent downgrading of our triple “A” rating, we need to shine the light a little further on S&P and any other agency that is doing business in a similar way. No corporation should have that kind of influence to “determine the course of the US economy or to play kingmaker in Presidential elections.”
So here’s what I say — SIGN THE PETITION NOW. We cannot afford to allow S&P to threaten us, to be a kingmaker and to get involved in politics. Their standing as a credit rating agency should be revoked and the investigation into their involvement in the financial crisis of 2008 move forward in haste.
Resources
Is Standard and Poor’s Manipulating US Debt Rating to Escape Liability for the Mortgage Crisis? | Firedog Lake
$22 trillion Social Security surplus revealed on C-SPAN | Daily Kos
Moody’s & Standard and Poor’s blamed for global financial crisis | RJR News
SEC investigates role of ratings agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s ahead of the financial crisis | The Telegraph UK
