The terrorist scam of the credit rating agencies

Headline news this morning is that credit rating agencies have basically flushed the Italian economy down the toilet.  More and more regularly, these scam artists are hitting the news, afforded some kind of guru status in the world of finance; the US recently lost its “AAA” status, and the UK found itself described as performing at “A+” level rather than “AA-”.   Imagine bringing those grades home to your mum.  The moral and financial panic that follows such announcements wipes billions off of economies.

And yet these rating agencies failed to spot the biggest banking crisis in living memory just three years ago.  The US Department of Homeland Security reported last year that “credit rating agencies that investors relied on to provide impartial and accurate analysis of thousands of mortgage-linked securities instead used outdated models and inadequate data, were too influenced by investment bankers, allowed chronic resource shortages to undermine ratings, and delayed downgrading investments once problems in the mortgage market became clear.” 

The fact is that these agencies are just another arm of the cash-guzzling financial services sector.  They have no interest in accurate reporting – who holds them to account? – and merely help to create the conditions under which rapacious markets can fleece economies and bleed countries dry, leaving the ordinary populace to foot the bill with draconian austerity packages.  Credit rating agencies are merely one part of the self-referential cesspool that is international finance, and no more.

For that reason, it’s wholly appropriate that they be investigated by Homeland Security: terrorism can be financial as well as physical.  On the Today programme this morning, Nick Clegg defended his government’s obsession with the dismantling of the infrastructure of society by referring to the troubles of  Greece and Italy.  He spoke twice of those economies being “pushed to the edge” by the markets, and warned that the UK economy would be “harried from pillar to post” by the financial sector if it changed course.  Just why on earth are we then making government policy that specifically panders to these bastards?  When the mantra for so long has been that we don’t negotiate with terrorists, what is the justification for putting up with that kind of attack on our way of life?

We should call out these agencies for what they are: flim flam merchants who enable their fat cat buddies to rape worldwide economies. Every statement of theirs should be vociferously countered with any number of reports that show their incompetence and venality, and then we should tax and regulate the life out of them, and then, if that doesn’t shut them up, we should throw them in jail, regardless of whether or not they’ve done anything provably illegal: hell, lets rendition them to Guantanamo now that Libya won’t play torture ball with us.

Then we can all listen to their plaintive cries as they disappear round the u-bend.

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