Today’s another instance of what seems like further political incredibility to me. The supporting data's from a combination of several sources, so I’m listing them all at the start. The Associated Press via Fox News.com, Reuters and CNBC on-line via Drudge and Kevin A. Lehmann on the in Politics website.
To begin “The US government is (now) blaming the financial crisis that catapulted the US into recession in 2007 on debt raters Standard & Poor’s. But by singling out S&P, the DoJ raises suspicions that it might be retaliating for a downgraded US credit rating.”
On Monday, S&P was accused of inflating ratings on mortgage investments to boost its bottom line. The Justice Department said S&P gave high marks to mortgage-backed securities that later went sour, even though it knew they were risky, and also misrepresented the risks because it wanted more business from the banks.
Attorney General, Eric Holder, told a news conference Tuesday that "Put simply, this alleged conduct is egregious -- and it goes to the very heart of the recent financial crisis." He then called the case "An important step forward in our ongoing efforts to investigate and punish the conduct that is believed to have contributed to the worst economic crisis in recent history."
However, although it’s still unclear as to why regulators are now focusing on S&P rather than Moody's or Fimalac SA's Fitch Ratings who did the same thing, by blaming the financial crisis on S&P only, the DoJ raises suspicions that it might be retaliating for a downgraded US credit rating.
S&P’s response was: “It would disregard the central facts that S&P reviewed the same subprime mortgage data as the rest of the market – including U.S. government officials who in 2007 publicly stated that problems in the subprime market appeared to be contained – and that every CDO that DOJ has cited to us also independently received the same rating from another rating agency.”
So, it seems to me that faced with an economy they’ve ruined by themselves, and perhaps feeling the strings run out on blaming “W” Bush, another scapegoat’s needed instead. But what’s really interesting to me is that after four years of looking for something to blame for their own ineptitude, the best excuse they can come up with dates all the way back to 2007.
In the meantime though, I found a list of items that the aforementioned Kevin A. Lehmann put together that perhaps should be added to S&P’s conduct as having contributed to the worst economic crisis in recent history, according to Eric Holder.
#1 Today there are 88 million working age Americans that are not employed and that are not looking for employment. That is an all-time record high.
#2 When Barack Obama was elected, the percentage of unemployed Americans that had been out of work for more than 52 weeks was less than 15%. Today, it is above 30%.
#3 There are 1.2 million fewer jobs in America today than there were when Barack Obama was inaugurated.
#4 When Barack Obama first took office, the number of “long-term unemployed workers” in the United States was approximately 2.6 million. Today, that number is sitting at 5.6 million.
#5 The average duration of unemployment in the United States is hovering close to an all-time record high.
#6 During the Obama administration, worker health insurance costs have risen by 23 percent.
#7 Since Barack Obama has been president, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States has increased by 90 percent.
#8 Since Barack Obama has been president, home values in the United States have declined by another 13 percent.
#9 Under Barack Obama, new home sales in the U.S. set a brand new all-time record low in 2009, they set a brand new all-time record low again in 2010, and they set a brand new all-time record low once again during 2011.
#10 Since Barack Obama took office, the number of Americans living in poverty has risen by more than 6 million.
#11 Since Barack Obama entered the White House, the number of Americans on food stamps has increased from 32 million to 46 million.
#12 The amount of money that the federal government gives directly to Americans has increased by 32 percent since Barack Obama entered the White House.
#13 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of Americans living in “extreme poverty” is now sitting at an all-time high.
#14 When Barack Obama first took office, an ounce of gold was going for about $850. Today an ounce of gold costs more than $1600 an ounce.
#15 Since Barack Obama became president, the size of the U.S. national debt has increased by 44 percent.
#16 During Barack Obama’s first two years in office, the U.S. government added more to the U.S. national debt than the first 100 U.S. Congresses combined.
#17 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.
#18 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.
Therefore, it seems to me that an awful lot of damaging things have happened over the past four years, and I don’t believe the preceding list’s totally complete. But, I guess it’s a good thing that now we know the incumbent didn’t do any of it him himself at all, because the real culprit’s been Standard and Poor's all along.
That’s it for today folks.
Adios
No comments:
Post a Comment