Uploaded August 2011 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Update: more possible motivations from The Nation:
thenation.com/blog/162625/standard-poors-agenda
If you try to claim that the stock market meltdown was because of the credit rating downgrade, you are a fucking moron. The stock market meltdown is happening because the global economy sucks. Period. The state of the financial media makes me want to shoot myself in the head to escape from the stupid.
krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/aaauuuggghhh-market-commentary-edition
That having been said:
"S&P is the free market"
(no it isn't)
youtube.com/watch?v=QxZ9Ybi6Hug
"Credit Rating Agencies; Trust is secondary"
(right for the wrong reasons)
youtube.com/watch?v=TyQEwF2bVCo
"Thank You S & P, AA+, but perhaps it's too late..."
(oh god the stupid it burns)
youtube.com/watch?v=MJKHgshuUH0
Also, in the above video, churchofstfu says that the S&P 500 downgraded the U.S. credit rating.
Not to pick nits, but Standard and Poor's is a ratings agency. The S&P 500 is an index of 500 stocks (created by Standard & Poor's) that is tracked as a measure of overall market performance, and as such can not rate anything, much less downgrade it.
Wikipedia:
Credit Rating Agency: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating_agency
Bond Credit Rating: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_credit_rating
Importantly, Standard and Poor's is systemically and chronically full of shit (and the title of this article is like saying Bonnie and Clyde had doubts about the safety of keeping money in banks):
boston.com/business/articles/2010/04/23/credit_rating_agencies_had_doubts_by_2006
S&P's ratings suck: fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/why-s-p-s-ratings-are-substandard-and-porous
Fiscal reforms called for by S&P in April:
articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-04-19/news/29447289_1_fiscal-reforms-deficit-credit-rating
"Fed passes China to become largest U.S. creditor"
blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2011/06/09/fed-passes-china-to-become-largest-u-s-creditor
This is one of the things I was talking about last year - Quantitative Easing essentially was a reaction to the export-driven economies devaluing their currency against the dollar (among other things), and was a way of striking back. Stimulus was the primary public motivation, but it's very likely that it was a warning to China as well.
"MAJOR FOREIGN HOLDERS OF TREASURY SECURITIES"
treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt
Now those big numbers look very scary until you look at this:
"Is China Funding the U.S. Debt?"
ritholtz.com/blog/2011/01/is-china-really-funding-the-us-debt
In other words, people screaming about the debt are fucking stupid and have no idea how the United States financed the Revolutionary War, let alone our expansion afterward. Public Debt was baked into the United States as a way of giving the propertied classes a direct stake in the future of the nation, and by the Federal Government assuming the States' Revolutionary War debt, assured the strength of the central government.
gilderlehrman.org/teachers/scholars/HSP04.AH11.Pertz.pdf
Yes, we have a budget problem. No, it's not as big as people are making it out to be, and China is the LAST fucking thing we need to worry about - they'll screw themselves over by agitating for a replacement for the dollar as the world's primary reserve currency (which would be totally awesome for us, and would end the Asian economic growth model). We need to worry about crazy fundamentalists with subpoena power and seats in Congress.
Update: more possible motivations from The Nation:
thenation.com/blog/162625/standard-poors-agenda
If you try to claim that the stock market meltdown was because of the credit rating downgrade, you are a fucking moron. The stock market meltdown is happening because the global economy sucks. Period. The state of the financial media makes me want to shoot myself in the head to escape from the stupid.
krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/aaauuuggghhh-market-commentary-edition
That having been said:
"S&P is the free market"
(no it isn't)
youtube.com/watch?v=QxZ9Ybi6Hug
"Credit Rating Agencies; Trust is secondary"
(right for the wrong reasons)
youtube.com/watch?v=TyQEwF2bVCo
"Thank You S & P, AA+, but perhaps it's too late..."
(oh god the stupid it burns)
youtube.com/watch?v=MJKHgshuUH0
Also, in the above video, churchofstfu says that the S&P 500 downgraded the U.S. credit rating.
Not to pick nits, but Standard and Poor's is a ratings agency. The S&P 500 is an index of 500 stocks (created by Standard & Poor's) that is tracked as a measure of overall market performance, and as such can not rate anything, much less downgrade it.
Wikipedia:
Credit Rating Agency: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating_agency
Bond Credit Rating: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_credit_rating
Importantly, Standard and Poor's is systemically and chronically full of shit (and the title of this article is like saying Bonnie and Clyde had doubts about the safety of keeping money in banks):
boston.com/business/articles/2010/04/23/credit_rating_agencies_had_doubts_by_2006
S&P's ratings suck: fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/why-s-p-s-ratings-are-substandard-and-porous
Fiscal reforms called for by S&P in April:
articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-04-19/news/29447289_1_fiscal-reforms-deficit-credit-rating
"Fed passes China to become largest U.S. creditor"
blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2011/06/09/fed-passes-china-to-become-largest-u-s-creditor
This is one of the things I was talking about last year - Quantitative Easing essentially was a reaction to the export-driven economies devaluing their currency against the dollar (among other things), and was a way of striking back. Stimulus was the primary public motivation, but it's very likely that it was a warning to China as well.
"MAJOR FOREIGN HOLDERS OF TREASURY SECURITIES"
treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt
Now those big numbers look very scary until you look at this:
"Is China Funding the U.S. Debt?"
ritholtz.com/blog/2011/01/is-china-really-funding-the-us-debt
In other words, people screaming about the debt are fucking stupid and have no idea how the United States financed the Revolutionary War, let alone our expansion afterward. Public Debt was baked into the United States as a way of giving the propertied classes a direct stake in the future of the nation, and by the Federal Government assuming the States' Revolutionary War debt, assured the strength of the central government.
gilderlehrman.org/teachers/scholars/HSP04.AH11.Pertz.pdf
Yes, we have a budget problem. No, it's not as big as people are making it out to be, and China is the LAST fucking thing we need to worry about - they'll screw themselves over by agitating for a replacement for the dollar as the world's primary reserve currency (which would be totally awesome for us, and would end the Asian economic growth model). We need to worry about crazy fundamentalists with subpoena power and seats in Congress.
