Forum Post: "Credit Rating Agencies are a Threat to our Nation's Sovereignty"
Posted 11 years ago on Sept. 23, 2012, 11:21 a.m. EST by TrevorMnemonic
(5827)
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On Friday a key agency lowered my city's bond rating.
Our mayor calling it a "Devastating blow for the taxpayers."
Moody's downgraded our city's bonds from a "Triple-A" to "Double-A One Stable" citing 794 million dollars in unfunded pension liability.
The mayor says it was not unexpected.... even though no one in our government had released prior knowledge of a possible downgrade.
Get ready for the downgrades to continue.
"Unlimited resources for the banks and nothing for the people. Does there exist a more graphic example of how thoroughly rotten this financial system is? The Federal Reserve has trillions of dollars created out of nothing, gives it to the banks, banks keep it on deposit, gain interest, pays high CEO bonuses, fat cat city... all while the rest of America falls apart."
"There's another game going on way over our heads. The people are struggling... while the banks with the help of the federal reserve have captured control of our government. Could the threat to our nation's sovereignty be any clearer?" - Dennis Kucinich
The criminal credit rating agencies are one of the pillars of our criminal-looters-economic-system. Firstly, those signing officers who took part/take part in fraudulent ratings (having the rating agencies being paid by parties interested in high ratings is criminally stupid) should be prosecuted and imprisoned. Secondly, the rating agencies should be nationalized, reorganized and sold off as nonprofits.
"The Case Against Rating Agencies", by Prof. Michael Hudson :
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/08/19/the-case-against-rating-agencies/ &
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28892.htm (alternative link) .
"Masquerading as objective think tanks and research organizations, the ratings agencies act as lobbyists for banks and underwriters by endorsing a race to the bottom – into debt, privatization sell-offs and an erosion of consumer rights and control over fraud. “S&P was aggressively killing mortgage servicing regulation and rules to prevent fraudulent or predatory mortgage lending,” & “Naomi Klein wrote about S&P and Moody’s being used by Canadian bankers in the early 1990s to threaten a downgrade of that country unless unemployment insurance and health care were slashed.”
"No less a financial publication than the Wall Street Journal has come to the conclusion that “in a perfect world, S&P wouldn't exist. And neither would its rivals Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings Ltd. At least not in their current roles as global judges and juries of corporate and government bonds.”
radix omnium malorum est cupiditas ...
"Just Say "No" to the Credit Rating Agencies", by Gerald Epstein :
"This credit ratings fiasco - which picks off the weakest countries one by one and sends warnings to the stronger ones - an anti-Keynesian divide-and-conquer strategy - could not occur if governments coordinated and unified their actions to turn this crisis around."
Please also see "The Case Against Rating Agencies", by Prof. Michael Hudson :
e tenebris, lux ...
the trouble with credit ratings is they are only useful for borrowing money at interest rates
no government should be taxed by private interest
"Unlimited resources for the banks and nothing for the people. Does there exist a more graphic example of how thoroughly rotten this financial system is? The Federal Reserve has trillions of dollars created out of nothing, gives it to the banks, banks keep it on deposit, gain interest, pays high CEO bonuses, fat cat city... all while the rest of America falls apart.
There's another game going on way over our heads. The people are struggling... while the banks with the help of the federal reserve have captured control of our government. Could the threat to our nation's sovereignty be any clearer?" - Dennis Kucinich
yep when the banks receive the money to control who gets loans, they control the economy
they control aspects of the government too
Our state employees do really tough jobs, they either interact with a rude, stupid and disrespectful public, or they teach, or they save homes from burning, or they save lives, or they stop crime, or they help supply power, or remove trash, or keep sewage lines flowing, however, in exchange for all of those great services, they sell their votes to the politician that best meets their pension and salary demands.
Oh what a dichotomy.
call the whaaaaambulance!
Yea...it's not that we are 15 $TRILLION in debt...it's just those nasty credit rating people who are causing all the trouble. How dare they say we can't print more money?
oh, a 794 million dollar unfunded liability wasn't a threat? Tens of trillions in unfunded federal liabilities isn't a threat? This line of reasoning is laughable. If these gubmints were solvent, no credit rating would threaten them, because they would be credit worthy. lulz.
Aah, a Morlock. Too bad, the Eloi are waking up and recognizing you criminal monsters.
Dennis would know...HE"S the man who drove the City of Cleveland into default as mayor...and then voted out of congress...by his own constituents. But the moron Trevor uses him as an economic genius