August 16th, 2011, 9:16 pm
T4A, I share your poor impression of the ratings agencies, what they did in the runup to the credit crises was shameful and I'm saddened to think that the US justice system hasn't put them firmly in the crosshairs. No other player in the housing/credit disaster has been put in the dock either, sadly.But you know, I agree with the US downgrade for a number of reasons. The military/industrial complex has spent the US into penury and the so-called ethical drug industry may just finish it off. Then you've got the blinkered idiots in Washington struggling with a political system that doesn't punish poor management but seemingly instead rewards it. Isn't the US the only western democracy that lacks a constitutional mechanism for the orderly removal of an ineffective executive?