Limerick Ode To Standard & Poor’s Chutzpah

Paul Krugman does a great job pointing out S&P’s chutzpah in downgrading U.S. debt:

America’s large budget deficit is, after all, primarily the result of the economic slump that followed the 2008 financial crisis. And S.& P., along with its sister rating agencies, played a major role in causing that crisis, by giving AAA ratings to mortgage-backed assets that have since turned into toxic waste.

Nor did the bad judgment stop there. Notoriously, S.& P. gave Lehman Brothers, whose collapse triggered a global panic, an A rating right up to the month of its demise. And how did the rating agency react after this A-rated firm went bankrupt? By issuing a report denying that it had done anything wrong.

Limerick Ode To Standard & Poor’s Chutzpah
By Madeleine Begun Kane

Dear Standard & Poor’s, I’m impressed
Cuz you ought to be under arrest.
You caused the recession
With junk bond aggression.
Now you’re pounding your downgrading chest?

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5 Responses to “Limerick Ode To Standard & Poor’s Chutzpah”

  1. Bob Kennedy says:

    Michael Moore likes to talk tough
    ‘Bout arresting S&P and stuff
    Makes no sense less’n your
    Killing the messenger
    Next couple years will still be rough

  2. hansi says:

    Yeah….How soon we forget. America problems are NOT beyond solution. And there are solutions which can both spur economic growth and avoid riots like they’re having in Britain [watch out Tea party…folks may not take too well to all that budget cutting you’re so fond off]. It’s just there’s not the political will to tackle these problems in a fair, realistic manner. We’re Doomed :)

  3. A Greed tragedy (not a typo)

  4. Kathleen Cole says:

    Here’s the real tragedy. The bastards are right … legislators just have to be able to reason, negotiate and deal with fundamentals like paying debts our nation already incurred. Why S&P? -Beats the hell out of me, but I can tell you I worked for a mutual fund which prided itself on not being Wall Street. It was not one damned bit superior.

  5. madkane says:

    Thanks to all of you for your comments!