S&P Director: Yes, Tea Party Nutjobs Prompted Downgrade
Politico gets a great scoop from one of those who decided on the downgrade. Yes, it was indeed all the crazy talk about how default wouldn’t matter that prompted the ratings agency to take us down a peg. Because a country where lunatics are steering the ship isn’t a totally safe bet:
“A Standard & Poor’s director said for the first time Thursday that one reason the United States lost its triple-A credit rating was that several lawmakers expressed skepticism about the serious consequences of a credit default — a position put forth by some Republicans.
Without specifically mentioning Republicans, S&P senior director Joydeep Mukherji said the stability and effectiveness of American political institutions were undermined by the fact that ‘people in the political arena were even talking about a potential default,’ Mukherji said.
‘That a country even has such voices, albeit a minority, is something notable,’ he added. ‘This kind of rhetoric is not common amongst AAA sovereigns.’”
Read more: politico.com