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Sunday, August 7, 2011

Senator Bernie Sanders, on our national credit rating

"I find it interesting to see S&P so vigilant today in downgrading the US credit rating. Where were they 4 years ago when they, and other credit rating agencies, helped cause this horrendous recession by providing AAA ratings to worthless sub-prime mortgage securities on behalf of Wall Street investment firms? Where were they last December when Congress and the White House drove up the national debt by $700 billion by extending Bush's tax breaks for the rich?" --Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent, Vermont. Link: https://www.facebook.com/#!/senatorsanders

2 comments:

Sevesteen said...

If what I've read is correct, a big problem here is that the credit agencies are paid by the debtors, not the lenders. There's a conflict of interest--they need to be just honest enough that lenders don't have a better option, but flexible enough that they don't lose too many paying customers.

Mo Rage said...

Exactly, so I heard someone say, jokingly, that the way we need to fix this credit rating is just to hire S&P's and Moody's and all the ratings agencies.