S&P shakeup is penance for audacity

when S&P downgraded the US' AAA credit rating after the debt ceiling fiasco, there was much consternation and muffled incredulity. most agreed that the US political system was an obstacle to adult resolution of the nation's many challenges, but no one wants to make reference to our failings in mixed company. hence, someone at S&P had to fall on his sword:

S&P President to Step Down; McGraw-Hill Shows its Regret Over Downgrade - International Business Times: Certainly, we all know we have a political quagmire in Washington that has deepened in recent months. But that happens in political season, with a presidential election cranking up. It's not good, but the system is still working, albeit at an annoying crawl that is at times quite dysfunctional.

But S&P, in citing America's risky political system, put the nation's free-voice system on parole. So it wasn't just a downgrade, which would have been problematic in one way, in light of the $2 trillion calculation error. It was the reckless way the downgrade was dished out, bashing the nation before the world.

Most of us couldn't understand why S&P went so far in making a bold political statement with its action. Initially, the agency and its parent company, McGraw-Hill, stood by the move. At that point, with a global financial storm swirling, there was no other option.

Two weeks later, however, we now know.

this IBtimes seems to think that the system is working properly, albeit in a way that's painful to watch. it appears that corporate culture in this regard is more honest and accountable than government, however. sharma took the fall at S&P in a way that no government official ever takes a fall for catastrophes in our national life. or for that matter, among the corporate insiders who precipitated the 2008 collapse.

the guys who take the fall are the ones who speak the truth a little too plainly for general consumption. you can't come out and say the US is on shaky financial ground. you must only acknowledge "challenges" without attributing to them the prospect of eventual collapse due to profligacy and the inability of elites to deal honestly with the house of cards, financial ponzi of debt that the US dollar system is based upon.

i guess we'll just have to patiently wait until the coming collapse is manifest before we actually have to call the sting-pullers to account.