US credit downgrade/General recession thread

[Macy]

Would the rating agencies every feck off. Completely off the ball during the credit boom, and now over compensating on the way down. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution - all they do is feed the speculative market.

[Dodge]

All eurozone countries put at risk of downgrade (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16042346). Apparently there's a 50% chance that any of the six AAA countries - Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg - will be downgraded in the next 90 days. We're on the list too. Really does seem to be lurching from chaos to chaos. Wonder if we're at the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end?

Read an op/ed (can't remember where) where they basically said that if the rating agencies did include Germany in any downgrade, they'd lose all credibility within the markets. They'd be seen as trying to shape the market, than report on it. it was kind of "go on then S&P, try that, and see what happens..."