S&P's stripped the U.S. of its sterling AAA credit rating for the first time and moved it one notch down to AA+. Losing the Triple A status for a country like America is like a Khap girl losing her virginity to a same gotra boy.
Standard & Poor's (S&P) may be a US based credit rating agency... but still the name does not speak too well of itself. It somehow reminds me of ‘Poor standards’ or ‘Standards are poor‘ ... semantically speaking. Even my blog S&P stands for something better.
About the rating itself, I just learnt that the borrowers are rated on a scale from AAA to D. AAA being the best-quality borrowers, reliable and stable (many of them sovereign governments) and D the defaulters. The US of A kept borrowing over the years and came perilously close to defaulting this month. And instead of setting their financial house in order, they started acting like a third world country ( read Pakistan) hurling accusations at the agency.
China must surely be rejoicing with genuine fireworks ( unlike the computer graphics they put up during Beijing Olympics) in spite of loaning truckloads. Now with 2012 Olympics in London also in troubled Thames waters, China must be feeling on top of the world. I feel as happy as the Chinese ...not sure why. May be because happiness is relative – you may not do well yourself, but if the mighty falls you certainly feel happy. The reverse is also true as Aamir Khan says in 3 Idiots - A friend's success causes more heartburn than one's own failure.
Obama is doing his bit. His calming words however seem to have much less effect on the tumbling markets than Rakhi Sawant’s self professed love for Baba Ramdev on national television. In both the cases, no one seem happy or bothered.
This surely must be the biggest fall since Columbus' discovery. America's behavior reminds me of how an average Punjabi lives .. live for today even if it means living out of your means. It's time people take cognizance of the fact that a debt-shy south Indian way of life is the best way ... any day
So true living within the means is always healthy(financial).We (Indians)were laughed at because we were conservative in our outlook but the tough our policies acted as an insulation avoiding desperate times like the one US is facing today.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely right Sadhana about the happiness. This is exactly why we all feel happy when a poor, ordinary Hero kicks the shit out of a rich Villan. Exactly why we all love Anna Hazare. Its called 'Vicarious Pleasure'
ReplyDeleteThnx Shyam...didn't know they had a name for that
ReplyDeleteActually there's a chinese credit rating agency which said it does nt believe the US agencies Fitch n Moody which still give the US the AAA rating n also said it would demote the US ........ Wonder if we (india) hv a credit rating Agency which does similar rating of nation based on their sovereign Debt. What ur friend Andal said is true ... We were often ridiculed for growing at 3% in the past n called that as "Hindu growth rate "
ReplyDeleteGood one, but i guess this is more of a political game that the US is playing against OBAMA... The ratings are not really true...
ReplyDeleteVery interestingly written VJ kudos....by all standards they will be made poor...I mean S&P not USA! They have already started gunning them through SEC. I completely agree with Sri Ram of the more murkier and ulterior motives behind this downgrade. Watch more interesting things unfold till the 2012 run up to the elections in US. Old Monk
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