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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / Jane Says

Jane Says

by John Cole|  July 27, 20112:04 pm| 103 Comments

This post is in: Election 2012, Excellent Links, Show Me On the Doll Where Rahm Touched You

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This should be fun, but pretty much everything the Jane Hamshers of the Left says here is spot-on.

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Previous Post: « Look, I Told You
Next Post: Orange you glad he’s Speaker, or not? »

Reader Interactions

103Comments

  1. 1.

    handy

    July 27, 2011 at 2:07 pm

    she’s going with Sergio

  2. 2.

    NonyNony

    July 27, 2011 at 2:09 pm

    I love it when you troll your own blog Cole.

    This thread should be fun.

  3. 3.

    Yevgraf

    July 27, 2011 at 2:09 pm

    People are basing their speculative punditry on tweets from Erin Fucking BURNETT??!? For God’s sakes, that woman was put on this earth to do one thing – put a fresh, cheerleader face to mindless, conventional wisdom punditry designed to support the MsOTU class.

  4. 4.

    DBrown

    July 27, 2011 at 2:09 pm

    I think this only rates thirty-fourth on the “To worry about” list – even the debt ceiling is only at three on that list. Of course, with the waiting game, it has been climbing and will reach #1 come Aug. 1st.

  5. 5.

    askew

    July 27, 2011 at 2:10 pm

    You couldn’t pay me to click on a FDL link. So, has Jane figured out a way to bilk money out of naive progressives/increase her media bookings over the debt ceiling fight yet? Because $$ and fame is all that woman cares about.

  6. 6.

    kd bart

    July 27, 2011 at 2:11 pm

    Cole , stop treating her like a ragdoll.

  7. 7.

    taylormattd

    July 27, 2011 at 2:11 pm

    You’re just trying to get her to exclude you from the “stupidest motherfuckers on the planet” club.

  8. 8.

    aisce

    July 27, 2011 at 2:12 pm

    grifters gotta grift…wait, what?

    sorry, i was running on balloon juice autopilot there for a moment.

    i for one welcome our ratings agency overlords.

  9. 9.

    jl

    July 27, 2011 at 2:12 pm

    Mark Thoma has a good post on the credit agencies today, with a link to an analysis of the impact of Wall St. funding on their work (which I have not had time to read yet).

    See Krugman ‘s NYT blog for repeated hammering on point that for the national bond market of huge economy (edit: a search of the blog for ‘Japan’ would probably bring up most of them), in a zero lower bound macroeconomic scenario, a downgrade will probably mean very little to our ability to borrow at relatively low interest rates. Krugman’s example is Japan, which went through a downgrade in the early 2000s.

    A downgrade would be painful for state and local finance, but because of legal and bond insurance issues.

    People and companies and countries trading in the bond markets all over the world do macroeconomic analysis of market conditions every day as part of their jobs. Why would they pay attention to a credit agency with a poor track record and no particularly outstanding skills at macroeconomic analysis (which is key for countries that have their own currencies).

    Edit: Mark Thoma’s blog is ‘Economist’s View’ for ‘out of it’ people who do not read economics blogs every single day.

  10. 10.

    JPL

    July 27, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    I would rather see pictures of Tunch’s litter box than read what Jane has to say.

  11. 11.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    July 27, 2011 at 2:17 pm

    askew

    Unlike here where we get bombed with right-wing ads.

  12. 12.

    jl

    July 27, 2011 at 2:17 pm

    @10 We could have both. But Cole can’t even fix the Reply button, so don’t get your hopes up.

    @11 I’m getting hockey equipment ads all over. Better than hair growth tonics and pay day loans I used to get. I guess I my blog ad profile is getting more respectable.

  13. 13.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    July 27, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    Just who do the credit rating agencies think they are- Jane Hamsher?

  14. 14.

    PeakVT

    July 27, 2011 at 2:21 pm

    Fitch did basically the same thing in the week leading up to the vote in Italy on an austerity package (which passed).

    The ratings agencies have become the oligarchy’s enforcers.

  15. 15.

    Yevgraf

    July 27, 2011 at 2:21 pm

    OT, but this was just plain creepy, and indicative of a movement which has gone unhinged.

    House Republicans on Wednesday morning were calling for the firing of the Republican Study Committee top staffer after he was caught sending e-mails to conservative groups urging them to pressure GOP lawmakers to vote against a debt proposal from Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
    …
    Infuriated by the e-mails from Paul Teller, the executive director of the RSC, members started chanting “Fire him, fire him!” while Teller stood silently at a closed-door meetings of House Republicans.
    …
    “It was an unbelievable moment,” said one GOP insider. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
    …
    Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/60035.html#ixzz1TKbNxRT7

  16. 16.

    ruemara

    July 27, 2011 at 2:24 pm

    Is it ok not to care? Because I don’t. I can agree with the woman’s principles, but as a former FDL supporter, I can still think she’s nothing but a media whoring grifter. So she’s right, whatever.

  17. 17.

    Jax6655

    July 27, 2011 at 2:25 pm

    The Wall Street Journal says that a credit downgrade could have a serious negative impact on Obama’s 2012 election chances. Ordinarily I would say that was the WSJ just playing their part on the GOP bench, but nobody knows what the implications of a downgrade would be, and it has the potential to be absolutely devastating.

    Devastating to Obama?

    Perspective . . . how does that work?

  18. 18.

    eemom

    July 27, 2011 at 2:25 pm

    Jiminy Christmas Cole, you must REALLY be bored to pull a cheap stunt like this.

    The semi-non-batshit Blue Texan wrote that, not his dominatrix boss.

  19. 19.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    July 27, 2011 at 2:25 pm

    No click throughs from moi.

    I for one would think Calamity Jane would applaud anything that will take the President down a notch so Michelle Bachmann can be elected the first woman prezdint.

    Wouldn’t that be peachy.

    Rest assured, this is all about having a talking point for press releases to ensure another appearance on the teevee.

  20. 20.

    FlipYrWhig

    July 27, 2011 at 2:27 pm

    I agree that the ratings agencies are malevolent, corrupt, and should not have the power to influence policymaking as directly as the buzz suggests they do. I hate that banking, “the markets,” and “the economy” have become synonymous. Big Bank appears to be irked that Big Crazy is horning in on its hostage-taking action.

  21. 21.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    July 27, 2011 at 2:28 pm

    Yevgraf

    Peak wingnut?

  22. 22.

    jl

    July 27, 2011 at 2:28 pm

    In other news, I heard reports on the radio news today that show the fearful symmetry is breaking a little bit. But it is gotcha garbage, not really informative. Sort of like

    “The honey badgers say they give a shit. But records show prominent honey badgers killed half their food last year by chewing the heads off of live mice. Only one honey badger returned our calls and said most of the mice went to its kids”

    Anyway substitute ‘House GOPper’ for ‘honey badger’, and ‘received big government funded project for their district’ for ‘chewing head off of live mouse’, and ‘good for the district’ for ‘kids’, and you got the picture.

    No analogy between honey badgers and House GOPper implied (I don’t want insulted honey badgers on my ass, because they just don’t care! Honey badger is mad, it don’t give a shit).

  23. 23.

    FlipYrWhig

    July 27, 2011 at 2:30 pm

    members started chanting “Fire him, fire him!” while Teller stood silently

    Paging Tod Browning…

  24. 24.

    Davis X. Machina

    July 27, 2011 at 2:30 pm

    @Jax6655: Consider the source(s).

    Confirmation bias, how does that work?

  25. 25.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    July 27, 2011 at 2:30 pm

    eemom

    What gets me is that I’ve been dropping a few bombs on them lately and I get “Hi Raven, how ya been” and stuff. There was one unhinged attack on Obama and I wrote that the posters was a loudmouth idiot and marionfromsavvanah said “Thank you”!

  26. 26.

    JGabriel

    July 27, 2011 at 2:30 pm

    Jane may be right. I don’t know.

    I tend to think Krugman is likely right when he says the ratings agencies don’t really matter.

    That said, it’s really not a theory I want to see tested. Actual default, of course, is a huge problem — and if it happens, it’ll be hard to separate the effects of downgrade from default anyway.

    However, Jane is right that S&P’s selective disclosures, and manipulation of downgrade threats to its own advantage, are a dangerous game for the economy, the political process, and, quite possibly, S&P itself.

    .

  27. 27.

    Donut

    July 27, 2011 at 2:30 pm

    It’s no accident that Reid offered up the plan that Wall St. likes, is it? I doubt it.

    Anyway, I kinda just glanced at the FDL skrrrreeeeee! thingy there. Last I checked S&P is not actually an issuer nor trader of debt, so I’m not sure how illegal or underhanded his sharing a preference with anyone actually is. I’m not at all saying I think the allegation is no big deal, per se. But dunno if he is actually colluding with others in this action to do an illegal act.

  28. 28.

    danimal

    July 27, 2011 at 2:30 pm

    I’ve read Redstate and FDL in the same day.

    Call me Colebot.

    Jane’s right, btw.

  29. 29.

    Martin

    July 27, 2011 at 2:31 pm

    Cole, stop treating her like a ragdoll blow-up doll.

    Ahem.

  30. 30.

    jwb

    July 27, 2011 at 2:33 pm

    danimal: “I’ve read Redstate and FDL in the same day.” BJ’s high Broderism at work.

  31. 31.

    shortstop

    July 27, 2011 at 2:33 pm

    Cole is simply trying to calm our nerves with the distraction of an endless, repetitive, pointless but comfortingly familiar thread fight. Y’all can phone this one in, you’ve done it so many times.

  32. 32.

    cleek

    July 27, 2011 at 2:34 pm

    jh;dr

  33. 33.

    Bruce S

    July 27, 2011 at 2:34 pm

    Also, Robert Reich on S&P –

    http://robertreich.org/post/8099560686

    I love the folks here who are so constricted and self-righteous they refuse to click-on or read what is actually a quite insightful and “right-on” Hamsher column.

    Then I’m supposed to take them seriously when they pontificate on the absolute evil and “nothing but grifting” of….uh…someone whose commentary they refuse to read. Not a Hamsher fan nor a follower of FireDogLake, but I know who looks like the idiot in that binary slice of the strident, know-it-all blogosphere. Hell, I’d read a Pat Buchanan column if someone I knew and respected told me it was interesting or useful (and during the Iraq war, quite a few of his columns actually were.)

  34. 34.

    Han's Big Snark Solo

    July 27, 2011 at 2:35 pm

    I wonder if she has a quota of non-insane things she has to produce and she is trying to fill it.

    She’s still an asshole.

  35. 35.

    Martin

    July 27, 2011 at 2:36 pm

    @Donut:

    Last I checked S&P is not actually an issuer nor trader of debt, so I’m not sure how illegal or underhanded his sharing a preference with anyone actually is.

    From the link:

    Prior to Dodd-Frank, credit ratings agencies were exempted from selective disclosure regulations. Dodd-Frank removed that exemption. S&P is now subject to the same laws that Goldman Sachs is.

    And I believe that is correct. One of the things that they were trying to address was that S&P, etc. were saying different things to different groups with respect to ratings. By requiring that everything be public, there’d be a possibility for investors to detect such activity.

  36. 36.

    different church-lady

    July 27, 2011 at 2:38 pm

    Blind squirrel, nut, all that all that.

    Okay, I got nothin’…

  37. 37.

    Violet

    July 27, 2011 at 2:38 pm

    What does the market know that we don’t? It’s been consistently down for the last three days, but only in double digits. Now all of a sudden it’s down 160.

  38. 38.

    Jennifer

    July 27, 2011 at 2:38 pm

    @ 15 Yevgraf

    Infuriated by the e-mails from Paul Teller, the executive director of the RSC, members started chanting “Fire him, fire him!” while Teller stood silently at a closed-door meetings of House Republicans.
    …
    “It was an unbelievable moment,” said one GOP insider. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

    Sounds like we’ll be in Lord of the Flies territory by Saturday at the latest.

  39. 39.

    El Tiburon

    July 27, 2011 at 2:39 pm

    But but but Grover Grover Grover and racist racist racist and Greenwald Greenwald!!!!1!

    Also too harpy harpy harpy and Grover Grover Grover.

    Finally, Grover.

    And Greenwald.

    And scene.

  40. 40.

    MattR

    July 27, 2011 at 2:39 pm

    @Martin: You need to check the wall behind you. Something just flew over your head. :)

    (EDIT: In case you need a hint)

  41. 41.

    NonyNony

    July 27, 2011 at 2:40 pm

    @Donut

    It’s no accident that Reid offered up the plan that Wall St. likes, is it? I doubt it.

    No, since Reid is a conservative Democrat and the Senate is chock-full of conservative Democrats, and Reid has to have a plan that gets to a 60 vote threshold meaning that he has to drag a number of Republicans along with him, I’m sure that it’s not an accident that he’s turned in a plan that Wall Street likes.

    The end game for the conservative wing of the Democratic Party is finally bearing fruit. They’ve been working for decades to prove to big business that they’re the better party for business than the GOP. The Democrats are positioned to be the party of Big Business for the 21st century.

    Another step in the post-CRA realignment of the country. It’s interesting watching the Democratic Party morph into the pre-Depression era Republican Party. It would be more interesting if the Republican Party didn’t seem like it was morphing into something as ugly as it has been.

    ETA: That last paragraph is harsher on current Democrats than I mean it to be. “Morphing into a pre-Depression era Republican Party with a better voting record on Civil Rights” would be more accurate.

  42. 42.

    Yevgraf

    July 27, 2011 at 2:41 pm

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    Peak wingnut?

    Far, far right nutcases attacking far right nutcases who parry and riposte. It feels like the moment may have finally arrived.

  43. 43.

    El Cid

    July 27, 2011 at 2:41 pm

    I dunno. Maybe it would be better to have Standard & Poors run the nation. Or at least be the precedent to have capital rule directly.

    Wouldn’t it be a lot more honest to have big finance and their big business partners running the country openly, and stop all this obfuscation of purchasing candidates and parties so indirectly?

    And, don’t all my humble reg’lar fellow Amurkans say stuff like the government should be run more like a business?

    Well, how else to make the government run more like a business than to have an actual corporation actually run it?

    That their orders would be implemented by an elected body is simply a technical detail.

    (Astoundingly, I am physically capable of discussing the points of the linked piece without imagining I’m now contributing to the Maoist-Naxalite-anti-Obama insurgency.)

  44. 44.

    Ash Can

    July 27, 2011 at 2:44 pm

    To be honest, having been out of the financial business myself for years and no longer keeping up with its inside baseball, I have no idea who, if anyone, in the business is still listening to the ratings agencies, or which ones, or how closely. I’d love to hear some feedback from folks here in the know.

  45. 45.

    catclub

    July 27, 2011 at 2:46 pm

    Yevgraf @ 15
    Didn’t someone else post about the TP and rest of GOP ending by going after each other with machetes?

  46. 46.

    OzoneR

    July 27, 2011 at 2:46 pm

    I agree with the wench

    Though I need to say this

    Standard and Poor’s Should Not Be Able to Play Kingmaker in the 2012 Election

    I’m sure that’s because Jane’s ad company wants to do that.

  47. 47.

    Jax6655

    July 27, 2011 at 2:46 pm

    Davis X. Machina @27

    Yep.

    And she had to throw that bit in there, even though it had nothing at all to do with the point of the article — S&P’s behavior which really was about the Republicans and Boehner’s bill.

    OK. Plus my first and probably last FDL pageview.

  48. 48.

    Jax6655

    July 27, 2011 at 2:46 pm

    Davis X. Machina @27

    Yep.

    And she had to throw that bit in there, even though it had nothing at all to do with the point of the article — S&P’s behavior which really was about the Republicans and Boehner’s bill.

    OK. Plus my first and probably last FDL pageview.

  49. 49.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    July 27, 2011 at 2:47 pm

    @Yevgraf #13:

    members started chanting “Fire him, fire him!” while Teller stood silently at a closed-door meetings of House Republicans

    Ah, so the Red Guard imposed Self-Criticism sessions have now begun. I suggest that the protectors of our nation’s valuable cultural properties might want to start digging holes in the back lawn so they can bury stuff in a hurry should the need arise.

  50. 50.

    eemom

    July 27, 2011 at 2:54 pm

    Can’t you people READ? I told you, Mistress Jane didn’t write that. Sheesh.

    @ Raven

    the old-timers over there still luvs ya, dude. Even Eunuch-In-Chief RBG can’t bring himself to ban you.

  51. 51.

    jl

    July 27, 2011 at 2:54 pm

    @49
    “our nation’s valuable cultural properties might want to start digging holes in the back lawn so they can bury stuff”

    Please remember to wrap your plasma screens before they go into the ground.

  52. 52.

    Martin

    July 27, 2011 at 2:54 pm

    @MattR:

    Something just flew over your head.

    Shit, how could I have missed that. Totally my generation too.

    I fail.

  53. 53.

    El Tiburon

    July 27, 2011 at 2:55 pm

    I’m sure that’s because Jane’s ad company wants to do that.

    ZING!

    POW!

    SMACK!

    Oh, yeah, that ad company. The one that works to get teatards elected while stabbing dems in the back. THAT ad company. Yes, I do remember it well. Yeah, that smear kind of fizzled like a Sarah Palin documentary. But nice try.

  54. 54.

    pragmatism

    July 27, 2011 at 2:56 pm

    jane says she’s never been in love. she don’t know what it is. she only knows when grover fucking norquist wants her.

    my hamster derangement syndrome has manifested itself by me channeling stewie griffin. i have been yelling “Vile woman!” for the past 5 minutes.

  55. 55.

    eemom

    July 27, 2011 at 2:57 pm

    @ Flip

    Big Bank appears to be irked that Big Crazy is horning in on its hostage-taking action.

    Like. Stealing.

  56. 56.

    slag

    July 27, 2011 at 2:59 pm

    @cleek:

    jh;dr

    OK. Now that was funny!

  57. 57.

    JGabriel

    July 27, 2011 at 3:01 pm

    @Violet:

    What does the market know that we don’t? It’s been consistently down for the last three days, but only in double digits. Now all of a sudden it’s down 160.

    Nothing. They’ve been in denial about the possibility of default, and it’s starting to catch up to them.

    Also, even 160 points isn’t that big a drop when the market is over 12,000. If investors sell off, they don’t have any good alternative instruments to re-invest in: it’s not like T-Bills are currently any safer than stocks.

    .

  58. 58.

    shortstop

    July 27, 2011 at 3:03 pm

    Can’t you people READ? I told you, Mistress Jane didn’t write that. Sheesh.

    Standard and Poor’s Should Not Be Able to Play Kingmaker in the 2012 Election
    By: Jane Hamsher Wednesday July 27, 2011 9:28 am (insert photo of Jane Hamsher)

  59. 59.

    j low

    July 27, 2011 at 3:07 pm

    El Cid @ 43- The savings would come in not having to pay Congress the middle man.

  60. 60.

    eemom

    July 27, 2011 at 3:10 pm

    @58

    Oh. Well, the FIRST time I clicked the link, it went to a feed of the Blue Texan piece. So I am neither teh stoopid nor teh crazy.

    But I know how you creamed your pants posting that, so enjoy.

  61. 61.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    July 27, 2011 at 3:11 pm

    @shortstop:

    Y’all can phone this one in, you’ve done it so many times.

    Ha.

    Good one.

  62. 62.

    Yevgraf

    July 27, 2011 at 3:11 pm

    If investors sell off, they don’t have any good alternative instruments to re-invest in: it’s not like T-Bills are currently any safer than stocks.

    There’s always the ol’ standby – they can go into the big paper oil glut and drive the price up further, since there’s no incentive to buy into companies tht own land and buildings, employ people or make things.

  63. 63.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    July 27, 2011 at 3:13 pm

    @eemom:

    So I am neither teh stoopid nor teh crazy.

    Nope, just loudly wrong twice in a row.

    ETA: Followed by belligerence.

  64. 64.

    Larryb

    July 27, 2011 at 3:13 pm

    @37 violet

    What does the market know that we don’t? It’s been consistently down for the last three days, but only in double digits. Now all of a sudden it’s down 160.

    Nate Silver had a pretty good entry the other day on this: Basically, the panic level goes up logarithmically as we approach the deadline. According to his analysis we didn’t hit the inflection point until today.

  65. 65.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    July 27, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    eemom

    I miss the Flamethrower!

  66. 66.

    Yevgraf

    July 27, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    Didn’t someone else post about the TP and rest of GOP ending by going after each other with machetes?

    This little event conveys all the serene calm, earnest seriousness and polite discourse of a Jamaican political campaign.

    And if that’s how they act toward each other, what are their plans for us soc!ialistical libruls?

  67. 67.

    shortstop

    July 27, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    Oh. Well, the FIRST time I clicked the link, it went to a feed of the Blue Texan piece. So I am neither teh stoopid nor teh crazy.

    Perhaps John changed the link to the Blue Texan piece between the time Yevgraf commented on the specific content of the Hamsher piece at #3 and when you weighed in at #18, then changed it back again just to fuck with your head.

    Quadruple down?

  68. 68.

    shortstop

    July 27, 2011 at 3:20 pm

    Martin:

    Shit, how could I have missed that. Totally my generation too. I fail.

    You have to learn to forgive yourself. You have to.

  69. 69.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    July 27, 2011 at 3:24 pm

    eemom

    Write it off as browser fail and ignore the bait.

  70. 70.

    eemom

    July 27, 2011 at 3:25 pm

    @ 63

    hi there, fuckie. Tell me, do you spend your ENTIRE life waiting to chime in when someone else insults me?

  71. 71.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    July 27, 2011 at 3:26 pm

    she get mad
    and she start to cry
    she takes a swing but
    she can’t hit
    she knows,
    they all want her to go
    but that’s ok man
    she don’t like them anyway

  72. 72.

    eemom

    July 27, 2011 at 3:27 pm

    @ Raven

    meh, Norskie was mean to me when I had the meltdown over there.

    Did Hamsher even drive HIM away?

    OK Kiddo is the one I miss. A real gentleman, he.

  73. 73.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    July 27, 2011 at 3:30 pm

    or
    jane’s getting serious

  74. 74.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    July 27, 2011 at 3:30 pm

    @eemom:

    Tell me, do you spend your ENTIRE life waiting to chime in when someone else insults me?

    You think being corrected is insulting? You may want to schedule a meeting with a therapist.

  75. 75.

    taylormattd

    July 27, 2011 at 3:34 pm

    More importantly, the fucking Mariners look to be breaking their seventeen (17) game losing streak. God.

  76. 76.

    phil

    July 27, 2011 at 3:37 pm

    Yeah it would be terrible…
    Obama would have no reason not to open investigations on how the rating industry does business, with arrests coming just in time for the 2012 elections.

  77. 77.

    eemom

    July 27, 2011 at 3:39 pm

    @ 74

    I guess that would be a yes.

  78. 78.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    July 27, 2011 at 3:40 pm

    @phil:

    Obama would have no reason not to open investigations on how the rating industry does business, with arrests coming just in time for the 2012 elections.

    That’s a knee slapper.

  79. 79.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    July 27, 2011 at 3:41 pm

    .
    .
    [ANN]
    Fear of Firedoglake / Jane Hamsher / Progressive Policy / Glenn Greenwald / Digby Downer / Facts and Logic Aromatherapy Workshop

    Balloonbagger Vouchers Accepted!

    Stay tuned for details.
    .
    .

  80. 80.

    jsfox

    July 27, 2011 at 3:43 pm

    Jane would have a point, still trying to remember when Jane ever had a point, If S&Ps opinion about Reid v Boehner’s plan wasn’t reported in a lot of places so no big secret here. And next maybe she shouldn’t depend on Politico or reporting on the subject at all. Since S&P is denying rather strongly they are endorsing one plan over the other. Now would I take their denial with a grain of salt? Absolutely.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110726-717276.html

    I guess the larger point why is anyone listening or taking seriously anything Jane rants about.

  81. 81.

    burnspbesq

    July 27, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    @BruceS:

    Remind me again why I should take Hamsher’s opinions on arcane securities law issues at face value?

  82. 82.

    September

    July 27, 2011 at 3:59 pm

    She’s still a fucking grifter and raging drunk. #Fixed

  83. 83.

    4jkb4ia

    July 27, 2011 at 4:04 pm

    That’s a topic that’s right in Jane’s wheelhouse sweet spot, although she is somewhat late to this particular party. Konczal on how rating agencies don’t know how to do public debt was a good statement of the case.

    @Martin: I didn’t get it either.

  84. 84.

    Donut

    July 27, 2011 at 4:06 pm

    @ Martin

    Thanks for the correction.

  85. 85.

    MomSense

    July 27, 2011 at 4:08 pm

    What was up with the Geithner bit? I hope he met with S&P to urge them not to downgrade and I hope he meets with as many agencies, creditors, etc as he can and continues to.

  86. 86.

    Pat

    July 27, 2011 at 4:15 pm

    @jsfox

    Jane and Glenn are popular with the media and liberals precisely because they’re among the painfully few high-profile pundits on the left who will openly criticize Obama’s rightward stance. Attribute it to their greed and opportunism if that helps you rationalize away all of the President’s broken promises and failure to lead, but the larger point you should seriously consider is why a growing number of 2008 Obama voters are starting to agree with them and not you.

  87. 87.

    Bruce S

    July 27, 2011 at 4:20 pm

    burnspbesq – July 27, 2011 | 3:52 pm · Link

    @BruceS:

    Remind me again why I should take Hamsher’s opinions on arcane securities law issues at face value?

    As far as substance is concerned, the column was as good as most of the better blog post here tend to be – certainly better targeted and more substantive than the “Lawrence O’Donnell said..” series here. And the point was far from “arcane” (others here have pointed out that S&P is covered by disclosure laws in the financial reform bill.)

    But hey, it was Cole’s link. I’m not your daddy. And FWIW I’ve never linked to FireDogLake in my life – they’re not on my personal radar and not terribly important to my pressing concerns. So you’re welcome to deal with your Hamsher issues on your own dime – or berate Cole if you think that this link was a waste of your precious time, even as you’re posting comments in this thread. I don’t get it.

  88. 88.

    Bruce S

    July 27, 2011 at 4:26 pm

    Lest we forget…

    (L)ast fall, via the New York Times reporting of the Crisis Inquiry hearings, we learned this:

    D. Keith Johnson, a former president of Clayton Holdings, a company that analyzed mortgage pools for the Wall Street firms that sold them, told the commission on Thursday that almost half the mortgages Clayton sampled from the beginning of 2006 through June 2007 failed to meet crucial quality benchmarks that banks had promised to investors.
    Yet, Clayton found, Wall Street was placing many of the troubled loans into bundles known as mortgage securities.

    Mr. Johnson said he took this data to officials at Standard & Poor’s, Fitch Ratings and to the executive team at Moody’s Investors Service.

    “We went to the ratings agencies and said, ‘Wouldn’t this information be great for you to have as you assign tranche levels of risk?’ ” Mr. Johnson testified last week. But none of the agencies took him up on his offer, he said, indicating that it was against their business interests to be too critical of Wall Street.

  89. 89.

    rea

    July 27, 2011 at 4:37 pm

    I don’t approve of S&P mixing business and politics. The legal argument in the linked post, however, seems to depend on S&P being an “issuer” of securities. I don’t think a rating agency qualifies as an “issuer” of the securities it rates, as a matter of common sense.

  90. 90.

    jaleh

    July 27, 2011 at 4:57 pm

    Robert Reich:

    “Put another way: If Standard & Poor’s had been doing the job it was supposed to be doing between 2000 and 2008, the federal budget wouldn’t be in a crisis — and Standard & Poor’s wouldn’t be threatening the United States with a downgrade if we didn’t come up with a credible plan for lopping $4 trillion off it.

    So why has Standard & Poor’s decided now’s the time to crack down on the federal budget — when it gave free passes to Wall Street’s risky securities and George W. Bush’s giant tax cuts for the wealthy, thereby contributing to the very crisis its now demanding be addressed?

    Could it have anything to do with the fact that the Street pays Standard & Poor’s bills?”

  91. 91.

    jake the snake

    July 27, 2011 at 5:04 pm

    @FlipYrWhig

    I saw what you did there.

  92. 92.

    sukabi

    July 27, 2011 at 5:41 pm

    The ratings agencies have become the oligarchy’s enforcers.

    yep, all you have to do is take a look at how they ‘rated’ the CDS / CDOs and the resultant market bubble and spectacular crash , and take a look at who exactly benefited from their market manipulations… and the situation hasn’t changed in the least in the last 2+ years…

  93. 93.

    sukabi

    July 27, 2011 at 5:48 pm

    there’s another solution that’s not been considered…. since the Fed likes to print trillions of $$ and secretly hands bundles of cash out to foreign banks, why not have the Fed ‘find’ enough cash to magically pay down the debt…

  94. 94.

    cynickal

    July 27, 2011 at 5:50 pm

    I was hoping for more than just 2 minutes of hate.
    The BJers must be running low on haterade.

  95. 95.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    July 27, 2011 at 6:12 pm

    .
    .
    @79 Uncle Clarence Thomas

    Stay tuned for details.

    Free smelling salts.
    .
    .

  96. 96.

    Tom65

    July 27, 2011 at 8:09 pm

    Blind squirrel, acorn, etc. Fuck Jane, I ain’t clicking that link.

  97. 97.

    FuzzyWuzzy

    July 27, 2011 at 9:06 pm

    Gooble gobble, gooble gobble, one of us, one of us.

  98. 98.

    Anne Laurie

    July 27, 2011 at 10:14 pm

    But no matter what political stagecraft is orchestrated, there is a very serious chance that a ratings downgrade will trigger an economic downturn that would cause unemployment to rise dramatically. And everyone on all sides knows that Obama would most certainly pay the price for that in 2012.
    __
    I don’t care whether you’re rabidly pro- or anti-Obama, a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent or a Green or none of the above. What S&P and the other CRAs are doing right now is completely illegal and outside the boundaries of their own codes of conduct. They’re acting as Wall Street’s tasers in Shock Doctrine 2.0, and making themselves the key player in determining what happens not only with the 2012 election but with the world’s economic future. They are playing a very dangerous game with the world economy that could have devastating consequences for all of us, regardless of what your partisan identification is.
    __
    Maybe you’re a Republican and you say “so what, too bad for Obama.” But what they do to one side today they will most certainly do to the other side tomorrow. And I would be saying the exact same thing no matter who was in the White House.
    __
    Does anyone really want to see an organization have that kind of power over the political process?
    __
    No private entity should have the power to bring down a president with an arbitrary and unjustifiable wave of the hand. No company should be able to line up a nation’s assets and orchestrate a fire sale on behalf of Wall Street, and then give them a private showing about what’s in store. They should not have the right demand cuts that destroy critical social safety net programs that the public overwhelmingly supports like Social Security and Medicare, and they most certainly should not be able to crown a new king as they implement Wall Street’s shock doctrine vision for the future.

    Seems quite sensible to me…

  99. 99.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    July 27, 2011 at 10:22 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    Seems quite sensible to me…

    Yeah, but she was mean to Obama so grumble grumble

  100. 100.

    Danny

    July 27, 2011 at 10:45 pm

    All my rage @ this trolling just as surely as if John had donated 10K$ bucks to the Koch bros just to see how we’d all react. Fuck you John. Don’t give the bitch a platform, whatever she’s on about. Don’t give her clicks.

    Made me reply, 1/10.

  101. 101.

    Danny

    July 27, 2011 at 10:46 pm

    AL @ 98:

    Stealth PUMA, going strong.

  102. 102.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    July 27, 2011 at 11:27 pm

    @Danny:

    Fuck you John. Don’t give the bitch a platform

    Just replying so I can find this comment again.

  103. 103.

    Danny

    July 27, 2011 at 11:38 pm

    @102

    Glad you liked it, Fuckhead. Wan’t to see me do it once more, for your amusement?

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