A Fanciful Fix to the Downgrade Crisis

[Yelnoc]

This occurred to me today while reading this article by Politico.  S&P, Fitch, and Moody's are all American rating agencies, yes?  If push comes to shove, the easiest way to stave off the threat of a downgrade would be nationalize all three companies.  Obviously that's politically impossible, but we all know there's no way a national credit rating agency would play hardball with itself.  Of course it would lose all credibility with the markets, but in the interim until a new rating agency is established, the threat of a downgrade would effectively vanish.

The same thing could probably be accomplished by declaring those three companies trusts and busting them up; however, considering there are three of them, that would smell too fishy.  Besides, that wouldn't give the government as much time before a new, reputable company surfaced to downgrade them.

[Mercenary]

Sounds like something some kind of old authoritarian country that didn't want people to know the truth would do.

[Sbane]

Doing something like that would trigger an even greater crisis than a downgrade.

[J. J.]

This occurred to me today while reading this article by Politico.  S&P, Fitch, and Moody's are all American rating agencies, yes?  If push comes to shove, the easiest way to stave off the threat of a downgrade would be nationalize all three companies.  Obviously that's politically impossible, but we all know there's no way a national credit rating agency would play hardball with itself.  Of course it would lose all credibility with the markets, but in the interim until a new rating agency is established, the threat of a downgrade would effectively vanish.

The same thing could probably be accomplished by declaring those three companies trusts and busting them up; however, considering there are three of them, that would smell too fishy.  Besides, that wouldn't give the government as much time before a new, reputable company surfaced to downgrade them.

And watch the economy collapse.  It isn't the company; it is the market, though Moody's is backing away from a formal downgrade.