Quote of the Day: Rating S&P’s Smarts

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From Economics of Contempt, formerly an in-house lawyer for an investment bank, explaining the difference between S&P and the other rating agencies when it came to making their case for getting a deal rated:

With S&P, it got to the point where we were constantly saying, “that’s a good point, but is S&P smart enough to understand that argument?” I kid you not, that was a hard-constraint in our game-plan.

That’s actually one of the kinder things he has to say. The rest of the post is worth reading for the entertainment value alone.

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Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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