S&P said to face U.S. probe on mortgages

S&P said to face U.S. probe on mortgages

money.cnn.com

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's is being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly overrating mortgage-backed securities, whose meltdown led to the 2008 financial crisis, according to a report published Thursday.

(visit the link for the full news article)


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The S&P downgrades the US and, rather than try and fix our flagging economy, decrease our debt and balance our budget, our fearless leader goes on vacation and the Justice Department decides to investigate the agency that downgraded our rating.

This is a pathetic attempt by our government to deflect from the real problem. Rather than address the aforementioned issues, we're going to point our fingers at the agency and make them look to be dishonest.

Dishonest? One would think that the government would find the S&P to be a kindred spirit.

money.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I fairness, the investigation began before the downgrade but I do find it suspicious that Moody's and Fitch arent under the same microscope.

The S&P was unduly influenced by the banks. There is an obvious conflict of interest when the party paying and recieving the evaluation can pressure the agency into changing their assessment.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. The S&P downgrade of US credit status was deliberate and meant to cause the market instability.

Remember this is a probe. Nothing will come from it. S&P should recieve an alien (an__) probe instead.

Well you know... if they decided to actually fix the problem they would lose all their big money campaign donors and then people might, gasp! actually start getting mad and start doing what's necessary to change the path that we are on.

Needless to say after this move A LOT more people have just been awakened to what is going on.

reply to post by SirMike


it is strange that this is being reported now and, yes, the fact that nobody else seems to be under the microscope is also rather odd.


This seems to be the current administrations method of dealing with things.

Obama and the US gov't are starting to sound like the bad guy in every Scoody Doo episode.

"I'd have fixed (insert any hot issue) if not for those pesky (insert anyone other than self and democrats)"

reply to post by Crakeur


In your linked article, the head of Fitch said that, to his knowledge, he was not under investigation. This does not mean that he is not being investigated also, just that he doesn't know about it.
As to Obama, he seems to be the least of all evils given the Republican candidates who plan to further enrich themselves on the backs of the American public. How did the mortgage crisis become a crisis? Who was draining the system for personal gain?

Originally posted by SirMike
I fairness, the investigation began before the downgrade but I do find it suspicious that Moody's and Fitch arent under the same microscope.

I was about to post a similar reply.

In all fairness though while this is pretty funny and kind of poetic justice I agree with the OP. We should role up our sleeves and get to work fixing the cause of the problem.

This was just a nice side dish

I have been in the room with these guys, well not Fitch, but S&P and Moodys. I was on the risk side of the table. It's all b*llsh*t. I am a member of this site for a reason.

Do not waste a tear on the rating agencies...when they roll over in bed there is a lobbyist on one side and an investment banker on the other. You know, the investment bankers you just bailed out via the big banks stimulus. I could go on all day but it's too pathetic and you all already know this stuff anyway.

It's global and it's bad....

reply to post by Crakeur


This is a hilarious post. Very smart...


I just remembered something about being in that room. We could not form the mortgage back security with just one rating agency. It was mandatory to have two rating agencies to form the security and agree to the risk management policies. So unless this is one more fail safe for the American people that has been done away with, there should be another agency under audit with S & P now for these failed securities.

reply to post by Crakeur


The S&P issues go back to before this downgrade. I know we dont like the past, even more so if its an issue we never thought of till it was in our faces but.