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Not quite AAA though.
[url= http://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-downgrades-UKs-government-bond-rating-to-Aa1-from-Aaa--PR_266844 ]OOps.[/url]
The sky is falling! The sky is fall... Oh. Nope, everything's just going to carry on as normal, perhaps even slightly better unless you're in politics.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21554311
Germany and Canada are the only major economies to currently have a top AAA rating.
...though of course that isn't actually true
The ratings agency became the first to lower the UK from its highest rating, to Aa1.
oh noes!
Well I expect that will make half a percent of bugger all difference to anything...
George Osborne must be worried about his job now. Or is he so rich he couldn't give a fig
Can't we just follow the american lead and sue 'em?
They'be been flogging the line "We need to do X to retain or AAA rating otherwise CERTAIN DOOM" for a while, so it's interesting from that point of view...
Honestly I don't quite understand why we haven't got out the pitchforks and burned the ratings houses to the ground... Never mind why we still listen to a word they say. Their judgement's been proved worthless- worse than worthless maybe since they played a big part in setting the scene for the financial crisis.
To give a quick comparison of Moody's financial acumen- they were still rating Greece as AAA til mid 2010.
Quickly.. to the financial crisis bunker!!!! 😯
So everybody is a bit meh?
I read somewhere that these credit ratings agencies aren't official, they've just set themselves up and pretty much make it up as they go along, they're not really part of any official banking group or agency.
Could easily be wrong, it's just something I heard or read somewhere.
Yup, just independant private companies. There's also no appeals process.
Where that gets interesting is in corporate ratings- Standard and Poor handed out AAA ratings to huge tranches of collateralised debt, which is what fuelled the housing bubble and subsequent sub-prime collapse. The ratings turned out to be pure fantasy. And who paid for these false ratings? The institutions that were selling the debt packages!
"How much is our debt worth?"
"Debt? It's worth bugger all!"
"Really? What if we give you a bag of money?"
"Then it is a AAA investment worth billions"
"Hey, we bought this AAA investment that you said was worth billions. It turned out to be worth bugger all."
"So sue us. Oh no, you can't! LOLZ. PS we are downgrading your country. But it's all your fault"
Northwind has it in a nut shell.
Ratings Agencies get a ZZZ rating from me unless they want to hand me a bag of money. Then, copying their business model, I'll give them a AAA.
George Osborne must be worried about his job now. Or is he so rich he couldn't give a fig
He's definitely rich enough to care, that's why he's in politics, not on the board of a private company earning 10 times what he is now.
I'm guessing when you're rich it doesn't matter what you earn from your day job 😀
Edit: the point I'm trying to make, albeit badly, is that Gideon is so rich he probably only does a job he actually cares about (political musings about what a cr@p job he's doing aside)
Am hearing that the coalition (and. Mr Osborne) are sticking to the plan as the alternative is much worse, at least that's what Danny Alexander said this morning, but isn't the plan in tatters now?
@ thekingisdead I accept your point just think that Mr Osborne is damaging his prospects of future employment, I am pretty sure he is damaging mine
'We need to follow my austerity plan in order to keep our credit rating and not lose financial credibility'
'The fact we've lost our AAA credit rating just shows how right I was'
Hmmmmmm..... 😕
the coalition (and. Mr Osborne) are sticking to the plan as the alternative is much worse
Yep :
[b][i]"Far from weakening our resolve to deliver our economic recovery plan, this decision redoubles it."[/b][/i] - George Osborne 2013
That's despite the fact that, according to George Osborne, the plan was designed [i]specifically[/i] to avoid losing triple A rating.
George Osborne in opposition in 2010 :
[b][i]Today, for the first time in our history, Britain's credit rating is under threat.
Indeed, some commentators think a downgrade is inevitable.
That would mean higher interest rates on our national debt and throughout our economy could tip us back into recession, with more jobs lost and more businesses going under.
That's why our first Benchmark for Britain is to...
...Cut the deficit more quickly to safeguard Britain's credit rating.[/i][/b]
[url= http://www.conservatives.com/News/Speeches/2010/02/George_Osborne_A_New_Economic_Model.aspx ]Conservative Party Website[/url]
And it's not just the Tories who have contradicted themselves as already mentioned the credit agencies have proved to have been equally clueless.
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11373977 ]Moody's hails UK austerity effort[/url]
[b][i]"The UK's top-ranked AAA credit rating is safe, thanks to the government's austerity measures, according to the rating agency Moody's."[/i][/b]
Of course none of this should be seen as failure from this government's perspective. The ideologically motivated cuts have, and will, contribute greatly to making ordinary people poorer and the super-rich even wealthier. So all in all a good job well done.
It seems then that this feeble-minded idiot has single-handedly caused the mother of all recessions, destroyed growth, still carried on increasing debt and now must be delighted to have damaged the UK's interational standing. Still I suppose once he's really destroyed the country he can go back to flogging wallpaper. What an a**e.
Surely a contender for worst Chancellor of all time after Geoffrey Howe (who did sort of redeem himself a little by bringing down Thatcher)?
I don't think you can really blame Gordon Brown for all of that, ononeorange.
Though thanks for restoring my faith in STW, chaps - was getting a bit worried last night.
Insane how much wieght people give the ratings agencies. Same agencies had subprime products rated AAA, and Lehman brothers rated AAA days before they went bust. They don't predict, they react.
Surely a contender for worst Chancellor of all time after Geoffrey Howe (who did sort of redeem himself a little by bringing down Thatcher)?
Oddly enough he was on Desert Island Discs on Radio 4 just after he got the job. He claimed to be a big fan of Geoffrey Howe and what he did in the eighties as Chancellor.