Monday, August 8, 2011

Bad optics

I'm sure there's nothing sinister going on here, but S&P certainly has a gift for looking bad (from Marketplace):
This final note today, in which S&P beats up on Warren Buffet. The billionaire went on CNBC this morning, said he wasn’t worried at all about the debt downgrade and said, in fact, that the downgrade changed his opinion of S&P — not his opinion of U.S. Treasuries.

Funnily enough, couple of hours later, S&P put Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway on notice for a possible downgrade.

Hmmm.

Also, we should note here: Berkshire Hathaway’s the single biggest shareholder in S&P’s competitor, Moody’s.


1 comment:

  1. In the long run, that type of retaliation will simply cost S&P their business -- even if it is perceived and not actual. Ironically, S&P has actually managed to continue a pattern of taking damage with this downgrade.

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