Admittedly, I know nothing about advertising, but I do think the S&P downgrade of our short-term credit was a brilliant marketing move!
There are three primary bond-rating agencies, i.e., S&P, Moody's, and Fitch. All three did a miserable job of rating bonds secured by sub-prime mortgage bonds. Last year's financial re-regulation bill aimed to correct some of their worst abuses but is now mired by lobbyists in writing regulations. I still don't trust them.
To my dismay, nobody in any ratings agency has been indicted for anything!
Now, everybody is talking about S&P. They have separated themselves from their competitors by being the toughest. In the future, their rating of bonds will be more important and more valuable than ratings by Moody's or Fitchs. They could not afford to buy such advertising!
If you care more about what the market thinks about our credit than what "sub-prime lovers" think, save this link http://www.cnbc.com/id/38451750 to your Favorites. This shows the real cost of credit default swaps. It is the cost of buying insurance on bonds. You'll see we are still the cheapest, except for maybe Sweden or Norway. To paraphrase Warren Buffett, as long as I own a printing press, I'll be a AAA!
The market doesn't need to advertise . . .
