{"id":38192,"date":"2011-08-13T16:42:27","date_gmt":"2011-08-13T16:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/sp-partially-blames-debt-ceiling-deniers-for-ratings-downgrade-the-intersection\/"},"modified":"2011-08-13T16:42:27","modified_gmt":"2011-08-13T16:42:27","slug":"sp-partially-blames-debt-ceiling-deniers-for-ratings-downgrade-the-intersection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/astronomy\/sp-partially-blames-debt-ceiling-deniers-for-ratings-downgrade-the-intersection.php","title":{"rendered":"S&P Partially Blames Debt Ceiling Deniers for Ratings Downgrade | The Intersection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read here<\/a>:<\/p>

Standard & Poor’s director said for the first time Thursday that one reason the United States lost its triple-A credit rating was that several lawmakers expressed skepticism about the serious consequences of a credit default — a position put forth by some Republicans.<\/p>

Without specifically mentioning Republicans, S&P senior director Joydeep Mukherji said the stability and effectiveness of American political institutions were undermined by the fact that “people in the political arena were even talking about a potential default,” Mukherji said.<\/p>

“That a country even has such voices, albeit a minority, is something notable,” he added. “This kind of rhetoric is not common amongst AAA sovereigns.”<\/p><\/blockquote>

I’ve been critical<\/a> of S&P’s reasoning. The ratings agency itself has a lot to answer for and doesn’t strike me as very credible. But honestly, this more forthcoming political rationale for a downgrade makes a lot more sense than anything else I’ve heard.<\/p>

I used to think global warming denial was the most alarming example of motivated reasoning<\/a> in our politics. But maybe not. Denying what can at least be made to appear<\/em> a longer term threat is one thing. Denying the idea that a credit default would be immediately devastating, or arguing that it would be manageable or even desirable, strikes me as an even more extreme concoction and rationalization.<\/p>

I’m also still waiting for the Onion<\/em> headline: “S&P Downgrades Earth; Cites Unbalanced Carbon Budget.”<\/p>

<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read here:Standard & Poor’s director said for the first time Thursday that one reason the United States lost its triple-A credit rating was that several lawmakers expressed skepticism about the serious consequences of a credit default — a position put … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}