Credit Rating Agencies | InvestmentWatch

Why has it taken four years for the Obama administration to bring this case?

From The Project to Restore America:

What has been distinct about Barack Obama’s presidency is his inclination to operate in continuous campaign mode, to deflect attention away from his policy failures and to undermine opposition by politicizing the issues and policy responses he chooses to take up. So now with the president’s attorney general Eric Holder having just announced the filing of a $5 billion Department of Justice suit against Standard [...]

Salary details of ONE THIRD of Americans shared with credit agency Equifax in ‘biggest privacy breach in our time’

Over 190 million employment and salary records of American citizens have been shared by their employers with credit rating agencies
This allows anyone signing up to their subsidiary companies to view salary and health insurance details of one-third of adults in the U.S.

It has been revealed that secret salary records of more than one-third of Americans have been shared by their employers with the credit rating agency Equifax.

Described as one of [...]

Fiscal cliff deal sends stocks into biggest rally in a year… but U.S. is warned it may STILL lose AAA credit rating

The ‘fiscal cliff’ compromise, even with all its chaos, controversy and unresolved questions, was enough to ignite the stock market on Wednesday, the first trading day of the new year.

The Dow Jones industrial average careened more than 300 points higher, its biggest gain since December 2011. It’s now just 5 percent below its record high close reached in October 2007. The Russell 2000, an index that tracks smaller companies, shot [...]

Wall Street Pressures GOP to Raise Debt Limit

by William Bigelow, Breitbart:

In the coming conflict over whether to raise the debt limit, Wall Street and some businesses worried that the looming “fiscal cliff” will jeopardize markets are facing off against Republicans who prefer to keep the debt limit in place so that the government will be forced to cut spending.

According to the Treasury Department, the government will reach its $16.4 trillion borrowing limit by January 1.

Businesses and Wall Street are concerned [...]

The Biggest Company In Greece Is About To Leave The Country

Greece’s biggest company, Coca-Cola Hellenic, is pulling out of the near-bankrupt country and seeking refuge by listing on the London stock exchange.

The €5.7bn (£4.6bn) company, which bottles Coke in 28 countries from Russia to Nigeria, said it would move its headquarters to Switzerland and hopes to list its shares on the FTSE 100 in London.

Coca-Cola Hellenic, which makes up a fifth of the Greek stock market, said it was ditching Greece after credit rating [...]

Moody’s: More California cities at risk of bankruptcy–Credit agency sees greater chance of municipal bankruptcies, bond defaults in California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — One of the nation’s top credit rating agencies said Friday that it expects more municipal bankruptcies and defaults in California, the nation’s largest issuer of municipal bonds.

Moody’s Investors Service said in a report that the growing fiscal distress in many California cities was putting bondholders at risk.

The service announced that it will undertake a wide-ranging review of municipal finances in the nation’s most populous state because [...]

Moody’s: More Calif. Cities At Risk Of Bankruptcy

Moody’s: More Calif. cities at risk of bankruptcy

“One of the nation’s top credit rating agencies will begin a wide-ranging review of municipal finances in California because of what it sees is a growing threat of increased city bankruptcies and bond defaults.

Moody’s Investors Service issued a report Friday saying that the growing fiscal distress in many cities in the nation’s most populous state was putting bond holders at risk.

It noted that [...]

Rating Agency Worker: ‘I Am Genuinely Frightened’

We are meeting in the heart of the City after the banking blog called on rating agency employees to talk about their experiences. The man I am meeting is British, in his early 40s, a fast talker and very friendly, the sort of person to apologise profusely when arriving four minutes late. He orders an orange juice.

“Every time I read about a new financial product, I think: ‘Uh-oh.’ Every new [...]

CREDIT RATING AGENCIES TO FALL UNDER GOV’T OVERSIGHT

NEW YORK (AP) — The companies that determine Americans’ credit scores are about to come under government oversight for the first time.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Monday that it will start supervising the 30 largest firms that make up 94 percent of the industry. That includes the three big credit reporting firms: Equifax Inc., Experian and TransUnion.

In remarks prepared for a speech Monday, Richard Cordray, the government agency’s director, [...]

Fury as NatWest warns bank glitch could drag on for days, Millions of Customers are worried about their credit rating!!!

RBS warns its 17 million customers that the backlog caused by a technical glitch could take at least another two days to clear, meaning that the computer failure will have lasted for more than a week.

Customers deluged online forums with complaints yesterday, saying that they were unable to pay bills and were concerned about the impact it could have on their credit ratings.

The crisis has hit customers at RBS and [...]

Complete List Of Europe’s Expanded Bank “Junk”

Via Peter Tchir of TF Market Advisors,

The good people at Knight put together a comprehensive list of potential ratings for banks in Europe after Moody’s came out with their outlooks. I agree that banks getting shifted to non-investment grade is a big deal. We saw the impact for Portugal once it got taken out of the indices, and I think for banks it will be an even bigger deal to lose that [...]

Portugal moves into default territory

From FT:

Portugal is trading in default territory after investors offloaded the country’s bonds this week amid rising fears of contagion. Worries are mounting that the private sector and Greece will fail to agree a restructuring package for Athens’ debt.

Many investors were also forced to sell Portuguese bonds after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the country to junk on Friday. Other funds sold Portuguese debt after Lisbon was removed from Citigroup’s European Bond Index, which these [...]

IMF Boss: Global economy faces the prospect of “economic retraction, rising protectionism, isolation and . . . what happened in the 30s.

Hugh Carnegy, George Parker and Peter Spiegel
FT.com
December 16, 2011

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund has warned that the global economy faces the prospect of “economic retraction, rising protectionism, isolation and . . . what happened in the 30s [Depression]”, as European tensions again flared over suggestions in Paris that the UK’s credit rating should be downgraded before France’s.

“There is no economy in the world, whether low-income countries, emerging [...]

French chief central bankster says UKs economy and debt is really as bad as Greece:

The chairman of the French central bank, Christian Noyer, has said ratings agencies should downgrade the UK before France because its economy is weaker.

US agency Standard and Poor’s recently warned Franceits rating could suffer over the eurozone crisis and downturn.

“The downgrade does not appear to me to be justified when considering economic fundamentals,” Mr Noyer said.

The British Government responded by saying the UK had a credible plan for dealing with [...]

Congress does not seem to worried about possible downgrades from other agencies

(Reuters) – A growing number of lawmakers do not think another downgrade of the country’s AAA rating will harm America’s economy, raising questions about how much pressure Congress is under to fix the intractable budget deficit.

Analysts warn, however, that signs of complacency on Capitol Hill threaten efforts to cure America’s long-term fiscal health.

Bond markets defied predictions of a jump in borrowing costs since August when Standard & Poors downgraded the [...]

Merrill Lynch Warns of Another U.S. Debt Downgrade

The United States is in for another credit downgrade by year’s end if Congress fails to agree on a long-term plan to tame the nation’s $14.8 Trillion Debt, Merrill Lynch warned.In a research note, the Bank of America unit predicts that either Moody’s or Fitch will move to downgrade the U.S. AAA rating. Standard & Poor’s cut the nation’s bond rating in August, causing the stock and bond markets to swoon, after [...]

US Rating Likely to Be Downgraded Again: Merrill

The United States will likely suffer the loss of its triple-A credit rating from another major rating agency by the end of this year due to concerns over the deficit, Bank of America Merrill Lynch forecasts.

The trigger would be a likely failure by Congress to agree on a credible long-term plan to cut the U.S. deficit, the bank said in a research note published on Friday.

A second downgrade — either [...]

How Mr. Volcker Would Fix It

How Mr. Volcker Would Fix It
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
Published: October 22, 2011

AMID all the minutiae of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, it’s easy to lose sight of the big question: will consumers, investors and the economy be safer?

That’s why a recent speech by Paul A. Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve and a voice of reason on matters financial, is so timely and important. Presented last month to the Group [...]

The United States will likely suffer the loss of its triple-A credit rating from another major rating agency by the end of this year due to concerns over the deficit, Bank of America Merrill Lynch forecasts.

(Reuters) – The United States will likely suffer the loss of its triple-A credit rating from another major rating agency by the end of this year due to concerns over the deficit, Bank of America Merrill Lynch forecasts.

The trigger would be a likely failure by Congress to agree on a credible long-term plan to cut the U.S. deficit, the bank said in a research note published on Friday.

A second downgrade [...]

Does Obama Even Realize How Bad His Speeches Are?

Remember how during the debt ceiling negotiations Obama went before the country what seemed like almost every day in order to call for tax increases, vilify the GOP, attack corporate jet depreciation schedules yet pretend to be a centrist? Well, his poll numbers still haven’t recovered from that so you have to wonder why he felt the need to go before the country today with [...]

Gov’t will borrow $72B next week

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government will borrow $72 billion in debt auctions next week now that Congress has raised the nation’s borrowing limit.

The Treasury Department says it will sell 3-year notes, 10-year notes and 30-year bonds to raise the money. About one-third will go to repay debts that are due on Aug. 15.

President Barack Obama cleared the way for the auction on Tuesday when he [...]

What Happens If The U.S. Gets A Sovereign Credit Downgrade?

ByEconMatters

After the debt deal is done, I think the biggest suspense of the markets is whether the U.S. will get a downgrade from its current AAA rating by one or more of the three major credit rating agencies. For now, Moody’s has affirmed the top AAA rating of the U.S. albeit with a negative outlook. Some believe Standard & Poor’s (S&P) could be end up [...]

John Williams: Debt Limit Debate Sign of Deeper Dysfunction

The Gold Report: Unless Congress approves and President Obama signs an increase in the $14.29 trillion debt ceiling, the U.S. Treasury is set to begin defaulting on payments starting August 2. That threat launched months of competing big deals to cut spending and/or raise taxes. To add to the pressure, in mid-July the credit rating agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s threatened to downgrade the U.S. [...]

Debt Madness Was Always About Killing Social Security

by Robert Scheer

This phony debt crisis has now passed through the looking glass into the realm where madness reigns. What should have been an uneventful moment in which lawmakers make good on the nation’s contractual obligations has instead been seized upon by Republican hypocrites as a moment to settle ideological scores that have nothing to do with the debt.

Hypocrites, because their radical free market ideology, and [...]

LONDON HAS DOWNGRADE POWER

David Beers may be the most influential political commentator in the U.S. right now, even though he’s hardly a household name, that isn’t technically his job and he’s only visiting.

As the London-based managing director of sovereign credit ratings at Standard & Poor’s, Beers will help determine whether the U.S. government’s credit rating will be downgraded as a result of the battle over raising the debt limit.

His company has gone beyond [...]

Both Reid and Boehner’s Debt Ceiling Plans Would Still Likely Result In a Credit Downgrade for the United States

By Washington’s Blog

The fight between Harry Reid and John Boehner’s dueling debt plans is high melodrama.

But the fact is that both plans would likely result in a credit downgrade for the U.S.

Huffington Post notes:

CNN’s Erin Burnett relayed word from her sources on Wall Street that the newest Republican plan would not satisfy the credit rating agencies, which have soured on the idea [...]

Weiss Ratings, an independent rating agency of U.S. financial institutions and sovereign debts, has downgraded the debt of the United States government from C to C-minus

JUPITER, Florida (July 15, 2011) — Weiss Ratings, an independent rating agency of U.S. financial institutions and sovereign debts, has downgraded the debt of the United States government from C to C-minus.

The C-minus rating for the U.S. reflects a continued deterioration in the weaknesses cited in the Weiss Ratings release of April 28, 2011, including heavy debt burdens, shaky international stability, and [...]

The Economic Collapse: Right now, the U.S. government is closer than ever to losing its AAA rating.

The Economic Collapse

For decades, the U.S. government has had a AAA rating. On the scales used by the big three credit rating agencies, that is the highest credit rating that a government can get. Moody’s scale actually uses lettering that is a little different from the other two big agencies (“Aaa” instead of “AAA”), but you get the point. Right now, the U.S. government [...]

SEC’s proposals to stop credit-rating agencies from providing inflated opinions to get more business.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday voted to propose a package of regulations that proponents say would stop credit-rating agencies from providing inflated opinions to get more business.

The regulator was forced to write rules due to the Dodd-Frank Act, which was approved in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008. The bipartisan commission voted 5 to 0 to introduce the [...]

Simon Black: The Worst Advice I’ve Seen In Years

From Simon Black of Sovereign Man

The Worst Advice I’ve Seen In Years

When I woke up this morning and scanned through my usual digest– boots on the ground reports from overseas contacts, market summaries from Asian and European bankers, commentary from friends still in the intelligence community– a couple of things caught my eye that I want to tell you about.

Dagong Global Credit Rating Co is China’s [...]

Does anyone really think this will end well?

We live in a country where one branch of government issues debt and another branch buys that same debt. Where we found ourselves in a financial crisis caused by over leveraging, and the government decided the solution was to print money. Where the bankers that caused the crisis were given carte blanche to decide how to “solve” it.

From FT:

Racing to fund the U.S. Government’s mushrooming [...]

News for 1/13/2011

1) Pension pledges have left UK and US ‘insolvent’

“The world’s most advanced economies, including Britain and the US, would be insolvent if they accounted properly for the pension and health pledges made to their aging populations, an authoritative report has warned.

More painful austerity measures, of higher taxes and further spending cuts, will be necessary in the years ahead “to cover the gap between expected future [...]

Post of the Year, right here: “DEAR Uncle Sam Sucker_,”

DEAR Uncle Sam Sucker_,

I was about to send you a thank you note for bailing out the economy…but then some nice men dressed in Ninja outfits came in and shot me full of truth serum. That led me to make one more set of edits to my letter thanking you for saving the economy.

It also helped me recall some things I seemed to have forgotten in my [...]

Must-Read News – Sept. 29, 2010 – States Are Poised to Be Next Credit Crisis for US: Whitney

by Saxplayer00o1

1) EURO GOVT-Portuguese CDS at new highs – Markit

“The cost of insuring Portuguese sovereign debt against default hit new record highs on Wednesday as talks to reach a deal on a 2011 budget entered a second day.”

2) Spain’s Credit Rating Set for Moody’s Cut as Economy Suffers

“Spainâ€™s top Aaa credit rating, held since 2001, probably will be cut one level by Moodyâ€™s Investors Service as the [...]

Actions by congress almost always have unintended consequences. The financial meltdown we have experienced is one of those.

by Larry

In the early 90â€™s, some members of congress realized that most of the wealth that Americans had was in the value of their homes. The obvious answer to make all Americans richer was to put everyone in a home, hence the housing act of 1992. The intentions were good; the results were a total disaster.

Many banks were coerced by federal agencies into making loans to people who were not [...]

InvestmentWatch

Why has it taken four years for the Obama administration to bring this case?

Salary details of ONE THIRD of Americans shared with credit agency Equifax in ‘biggest privacy breach in our time’

Fiscal cliff deal sends stocks into biggest rally in a year… but U.S. is warned it may STILL lose AAA credit rating

Wall Street Pressures GOP to Raise Debt Limit

The Biggest Company In Greece Is About To Leave The Country

Moody’s: More California cities at risk of bankruptcy–Credit agency sees greater chance of municipal bankruptcies, bond defaults in California

Moody’s: More Calif. Cities At Risk Of Bankruptcy

Rating Agency Worker: ‘I Am Genuinely Frightened’

CREDIT RATING AGENCIES TO FALL UNDER GOV’T OVERSIGHT

Fury as NatWest warns bank glitch could drag on for days, Millions of Customers are worried about their credit rating!!!

Complete List Of Europe’s Expanded Bank “Junk”

Portugal moves into default territory

IMF Boss: Global economy faces the prospect of “economic retraction, rising protectionism, isolation and . . . what happened in the 30s.

French chief central bankster says UKs economy and debt is really as bad as Greece:

Congress does not seem to worried about possible downgrades from other agencies

Merrill Lynch Warns of Another U.S. Debt Downgrade

US Rating Likely to Be Downgraded Again: Merrill

How Mr. Volcker Would Fix It

The United States will likely suffer the loss of its triple-A credit rating from another major rating agency by the end of this year due to concerns over the deficit, Bank of America Merrill Lynch forecasts.

Does Obama Even Realize How Bad His Speeches Are?

Gov’t will borrow $72B next week

What Happens If The U.S. Gets A Sovereign Credit Downgrade?

John Williams: Debt Limit Debate Sign of Deeper Dysfunction

LONDON HAS DOWNGRADE POWER

Both Reid and Boehner’s Debt Ceiling Plans Would Still Likely Result In a Credit Downgrade for the United States

Weiss Ratings, an independent rating agency of U.S. financial institutions and sovereign debts, has downgraded the debt of the United States government from C to C-minus

The Economic Collapse: Right now, the U.S. government is closer than ever to losing its AAA rating.

SEC’s proposals to stop credit-rating agencies from providing inflated opinions to get more business.

Simon Black: The Worst Advice I’ve Seen In Years

Does anyone really think this will end well?

News for 1/13/2011

Post of the Year, right here: “DEAR Uncle Sam Sucker_,”

Must-Read News – Sept. 29, 2010 – States Are Poised to Be Next Credit Crisis for US: Whitney

Actions by congress almost always have unintended consequences. The financial meltdown we have experienced is one of those.

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