Thread: Moody's AAA Ratings 177 U.S. Finance Issuers Possible Downgr

"Moody's Places AAA Ratings Of 177 U.S. Public Finance Issuers On Review For Possible Downgrade Due To Review Of U.S. Government's AAA Rating"

Friday, July 29, 2011
many links on this post

Moody's announced today:

Moody's Investors Service has placed under review for possible downgrade the Aaa ratings of 177 public finance credits, affecting a combined $69 billion of outstanding debt. The credits include 162 local governments in 31 states, 14 housing finance programs and one university. A complete list of affected securities and additional analysis is available at www.moodys.com/USRatingActions

These actions relate to Moody's July 13 decision to place the Aaa government bond rating of the United States under review for downgrade, and reflect the rating agency's assessment that some Aaa public finance ratings would likely be indirectly affected by potential credit deterioration of the sovereign.

In a previous action on July 19, Moody's placed the ratings of five Aaa U.S. state governments under review for possible downgrade, affecting approximately $24 billion of general obligation and related debt. Those states are Maryland, New Mexico, South Carolina and Tennessee and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The entities on down grade watch include:

• The Colorado Housing and Finance Authority's Single Family Mortgage Bonds and the Single Family Program Bonds, 2009 Class I

• Idaho Housing and Finance Association's Single Family Mortgage Senior Bonds, Series 1996B, Series 1996C, Series 1998D, Series 1999F, Series 1999-I*, Series 2000A, Series 2000C, and Series 2000D

• Kentucky Housing Corporation's Housing Revenue Bonds

• Utah Housing Corporation's Single Family Mortgage Senior Bonds, Series 1998G, Series 2000A and NIBP

• The University of Washington

• The Smithsonian Institution

Given that Moody's and Standard & Poor both say that they'll likely downgrade U.S. credit even if a debt ceiling deal is reached, it's looking dire for the above-described entities and bond issues.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/07/ ... 77-us.html

Giant Banks Lobby to Raise the Debt Ceiling and Slash Public Benefits ... So They Can Keep Sucking at the Public Teat

Thursday, July 28, 2011
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Economist Dean Banker notes:

Wall Street will suffer more than anyone from a default and it will not let it happen. The public should know this, certainly Wall Street does.

No wonder the fatcats running the giant banks which received tens of trillions in bailouts, loans and guarantees from the American public are screaming loudly that the debt ceiling must be raised.

Robert Reich points out:

Why has Standard & Poor's decided now's the time to crack down on the federal budget -- when it gave free passes to Wall Street's risky securities and George W. Bush's giant tax cuts for the wealthy, thereby contributing to the very crisis its now demanding be addressed?

Could it have anything to do with the fact that the Street pays Standard & Poor's bills?

Remember, the big 3 government-sponsored rating agencies routinely took bribes as their normal business model, committed massive fraud which greatly contributed to the financial crisis, covered up improper ratings after the fact, and otherwise sold their soul (in their own words). And see this and this.

Some complain about the poor sucking on the government teat.

But the fact that Wall Street controls the rating agencies, and the rating agencies are now creating an artificial emergency sounds like the powers-that-be - the giant banks which run this country - are trying to protect their government teat of perpetual bailouts from the public coffers.

And of course, they are the ones calling for slashing of spending which helps the public. Even though - as conservative writer Michael Rivero points out:

Social Security is not "unfunded" nor is it an "entitlement." That is YOUR money in that trust fund. You worked for it, and it was taken out of all your paychecks your entire working life.

The Social Security Trust fund invested your money by loaning it to the US Government, which is the largest single holder of US Government debt. But the US Government is already in default in fact, as the actual tax revenues have not even come close to the projections on which the budgets were drawn up.

So the US Government has looked at all the entities they owe money to and decided that stiffing the American people is the least likely to cause them harm. They will pay the bankers and they will pay foreign nations and they will continue to bail out Wall Street for the mortgage-backed securities fraud by embezzling your retirement money you gave them in trust. The US Government is robbing you to save the private central bank! [i.e. the big banks. See this and this.]

The debt crisis might be real ... I've been warning about it for years (and see this and this).

The potential downgrade to America's credit is real ... I've been warning about that for years, as well.

But the way that the rating agencies and Wall Street are approaching the debt ceiling debate is a scam. See this, this and this.

After all, they aren't even discussing the spending cuts which must be enacted to reduce our debt:

(1) Ending the imperial wars, which reduce - rather than strengthen - national security (and see this and this);
(2) Ending the never-ending bailouts for Wall Street;
(3) Prosecuting fraud and clawing back the ill-gotten gains;
(4) Ending the Bush tax cuts, which are hurting the economy; and
(5) Slashing pensions for public employees, at least when they are pegged to an artificially "spiked" final year's salary.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/07/ ... iling.html

From the Washington's Blog:

2 comments:

Fungus FitzJuggler III said...

Your lack of understanding of money and credit is a shame as you would be more alarmed as a result.

A situation is being engineered. The objective is to damage America. Probably, merely to allow those who made billions already to invest in the assets downgraded and thereby make even more, but further possibilities exist. All of government and banking is involved. The issues are easily resolved, but the theatre is aimed at deceiving the victims.

This has happened before, standard in fact if you have studied Kondratieff theory.

There may be yet more behind this, this time. Expect the depression to last decades.....
July 29, 2011 8:47 PM
Concerned reader said...

Why are you focusing on these debt downgrades as if they are meaningful?

These are the same agencies that rated junk bonds AAA during the housing bubble. THEY HAVE NO CREDIBILITY.

What happened after S&P downgraded Japan in early 2000s? Oh right, nothing.

You are an excellent reporter--please stop denigrating yourself by taking these fraudsters seriously@
July 29, 2011 11:08 PM

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/07/ ... 77-us.html