Mini-Me: USG Sues S&P for Fraudulent Ratings

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News Summary: S&P expects to be sued by Justice Dept. over its ratings of mortgage securities

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, February 4, 8:11 PM

US CHARGES SEEN AGAINST S&P: The U.S. government is expected to file civil charges against Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, alleging that it improperly gave high ratings to mortgage debt that later plunged in value and helped fuel the 2008 financial crisis.Read full article.

Lynn Wheeler at LinkedIn adds:

Congressional hearing Oct 2008 had lots of testimony that rating agencies were selling triple-A ratings on toxic CDOs when both the sellers and the rating agencies knew they weren't worth triple-A. Commentary at the time was that the rating agencies would likely avoid federal prosecution by blackmailing the gov. with threat of gov. rating downgrade.

Phi Beta Iota: Both stock market fraud and security ratings fraud have been well known since the early 1980's. Despite the fact that all banks and corporations operate under public commissions and are subject to regulatory scrutiny as well as sanction, the reality is that with a tiny handful of exceptions, all academic research, all investigative journalism, all mainstream legal processes, and all government bureaucracies have been complicit in this persistent fraud. To sue the S&P for fraud that the USG was fully aware of and fully complicit in for decades, raises the question: when, if ever, will the public hold the USG accountable for lacking intelligence with integrity across ALL threat and policy areas?

See Also:

Chapter: Paradigms of Failure

Graphic: Information Pathologies

Robert Steele: Itemization of Information Pathologies