S&P Defends US Downgrade: Dow Down 450 – Barack Obama Speaks

By Geno McGahee

Standard & Poor’s, a rating agency, are under fire for downgrading the United States last week. Today, they restated the reasons why they made their decision, while Moody’s, a rival, said that America still has the characteristics of an AAA-rated country.

S&P officials were on various TV shows and did many phone conferences with clients to explain their move, which helped fuel a ninth day of losses in global equities. The Barack Obama administration has been very critical of them and their stance. Obama gave a statement today, reinforcing just that.

“No issuer of debt welcomes or is happy with a downgrade by us. And as you know, we’re no strangers to attacks by governments when we downgrade sovereign debt ratings,” David Beers, S&P’s head of the sovereign ratings group, stated with the publication “Reuters Insider.”

President Obama came forward today and made clear the intentions to have the country rebound, noting that it was a mess when he became the President, but the plan is to rebound and rebuild.