Professor Elam

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S & P Hires Top Defense Attorney

Thursday February 7 2013

The Justice Dept is suing Standard and Poors for $5 B for misrepresenting the quality of bond ratings. Justice alleges this contributed to losses during th e2008 meltdown.

Professor Elam  believes that if S & P had downgraded the bonds that Justice would just as likely accuse A & P of contributing to the problem. In that scenario it is not hard to imagine S & P downgrading the bonds, then all who had to hold investment grade bonds would be looking or forced to sell into a market with no buyers, again a disaster.

Justice will of course not find fault with the asleep at the switch SEC or Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, all of whom have culpability in this.

 

 

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One response to “S & P Hires Top Defense Attorney”

  1. C Kingsley Avatar
    C Kingsley

    First and foremost this is a punishment case, the DOJ is trying to force non government company’s to “toe the line” in regards to supporting the government. Again this is not a new issue. What amazes me is that people actually still think this kind of “Justice” is not only acceptable but should be persued more often. Not unlike Macarthyism, black listing and so forth all of these incidents are examples of a mistake prone federal goverment trying to maintain the aura of infallibility.
    Consider if you will Black Water in iraq: What they did was wrong on almost every level (on a personal and moral based level). What is ignored is that untill the public was outraged the government considered Black Water its finest example of Mercenary Corps ever devised. BTW Mercenaries if given clear rules and held accountable from the signing of the contract almost always outperform government employees at every task and at every level. The trick is accountablity and oversight.

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