QUOTE: Ratings agency S&P Global has put Australia's triple A credit rating on negative outlook, saying there had been a "substantial deterioration" in the nation's finances and the country faced the risk of a deep recession.

You've got to love credit rating agencies. This is the very same Standard & Poors which gave completely (some would say criminally) wrong AAA ratings to the mobs flogging subprime mortgages and who, along with their competitor agencies, were key catalysts in the debacle that resulted in the GFC.

And yet here they still are.

They should have been sued into oblivion in the GFC days. It's a crime that they still exist.

The issue there is that S&P is an American company and sub-prime is a uniquely American category for their market because in most cases its illegal to refuse Americans credit. That's why their market went belly-up.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

S&P and the rest gave AAA ratings to companies whose junky financial products patently did not deserve such ratings. This led large investors worldwide (including many local councils here in Oz) to believe that they were making safe investments in those products. In the aftermath of the GFC, S&P and the others were dragged before various committees and admitted that they were pressured by market competition and senior management to hand out top drawer ratings or lose business to a competitor who would. They are bad jokes.

The Emporer's new clothes syndrome.