The latest big piece of news is that Standard & Poor's has joined Moody's and warned there is a one-in-two chance it could cut the United States' prized triple-A rating if lawmakers can't reach a deal on raising the government's debt ceiling.
All this of course is designed to put pressure on Congress to reach some sort of agreement before the deadline in August. But is that going to work? Should we believe them.
The ratings agencies have lost a lot of credibility since the global financial crisis. As analysts have said: "Wasn't Standard & Poor's along with Moody's and all the other rating agencies the one's telling us and the rest of the world that the Banks are sound and that Lehmans Brothers, AIG, and other enormous financial firms were safe with sufficient capital back in 2008? Why should we listen to them now?"
no comment untill now