Standard & Poors- can't they STFU.
Katla Revenger
Posts: 319 Forum Member
✭
Why the hell does this lot not STFU about ratings ect? seems that far from calming things their credit statements are undermining the efforts to help Greece.
OK any sane sensible person knows the Greek economy is up the creek and in need of drastic help but do we really need to hear the opinions and views of this lot?, Who the hell gave them carte blanche to rate anything?, what gives S & P the right to post ratings statements knowing that it will seriously affect millions in a country like Greece?.
Maybe i'm being naive but S & P are not helping matters.
OK any sane sensible person knows the Greek economy is up the creek and in need of drastic help but do we really need to hear the opinions and views of this lot?, Who the hell gave them carte blanche to rate anything?, what gives S & P the right to post ratings statements knowing that it will seriously affect millions in a country like Greece?.
Maybe i'm being naive but S & P are not helping matters.
0
Comments
Blame the media for placing weight in their opinion.
S & P are a credit rating company. It is their job to decide on the credit worthiness of individuals, corporations and countries.
They do this without emotion and based on the facts.
It is not their job to be concerned about the effect their decision has on Greece. It is for the Greek government to explain how they got in this mess.
Brown seems almost competent by comparison.
Greek bonds have beem a crock for a long time now but suddenly they downgrade them - and probably make themselves or their investors money in the process.
From all accounts and i may be wrong but the whole sorry mess is down to the previous Greek administration, the present lot got in opened the books and found a hell of a mess, Goldman Saks and the last administration fiddled ,colluded to hide the problem to enable entry to the Euro.
Thank to all for the info about S & P, i was hasty in condemning them as being the evil wrongdoers.:o
If no action was taken to reverse the Greek deficit fair enough, but action is being taken though the effects won't be seen overnight.
The most worrying thing is that the UK is next in line for a downgrade. If I was more cynical I might suspect the timing of such a move would be to maximise the beneficial effects for the Tory party, i.e. just before May 6. S&P aren't above such things, as their interference in last year's Irish election shows.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/cowen-attacks-call-for-new-faces-in-cabinet-1693290.html
It was agencies such as S&P who granted AAA status to "sliced and diced" securitised investments which later proved worthless, thus precipitating the credit crunch.
Exactly how politically neutral are they? no company with that much power has the right to interfere in the matters of a Sovereign nation.
Are they interfering? Or expressing an opinion that holds a lot of weight?
Presumably if they were seen to be heavily biased, their opinion wouldn't be as valued in a domain where it's all about the bottom line. Euromoney and AM Best offer alternative ratings for example.
Standard and Poor and Moodys rating agencies are the very same rating agencies who gave Goldman Sachs and the other fraudster banks AAA ratings for the Sub-Prime crap that was sold on to the worlds banks.
At least Greece has scuppered any plans that may have ben the reason for the downgrade by banning short selling for two months.
I applaud Greece for that move, never liked the idea of short selling, it seems a dirty way of doing business.
There is a least 1 part of your post I agree with