unusualmusic_lj_archive

Does the rhetoric sound familiar?

When the World Went Bust - Episode 2 - 12 Jan 08 - Pt 1

In the second part of its special look at the global financial crisis, Al Jazeera examines the impact on countries including Iceland and the future consequences of the economic downturn in the US, Europe and beyond.

When the World Went Bust - Episode 2 - 12 Jan 08 - Pt 2

Kenya and Tanzania are lending money to America????? Oh. Really. The fucking IMF. Debto countries must hold reserves in US bonds. Because the US economy is too big to fail??????? REALLY??!!!!??

Also: `Race to Bottom' at Moody's, S&P Secured Subprime's Boom, Bust

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- In August 2004, Moody's Corp. unveiled a new credit-rating model that Wall Street banks used to sow the seeds of their own demise. The formula allowed securities firms to sell more top-rated, subprime mortgage-backed bonds than ever before.
A week later, Standard & Poor's moved to revise its own methods. An S&P executive urged colleagues to adjust rating requirements for securities backed by commercial properties because of the ``threat of losing deals.''
The world's two largest bond-analysis providers repeatedly eased their standards as they pursued profits from structured investment pools sold by their clients, according to company documents, e-mails and interviews with more than 50 Wall Street professionals. It amounted to a ``market-share war where criteria were relaxed,'' says former S&P Managing Director Richard Gugliada.
``I knew it was wrong at the time,'' says Gugliada, 46, who retired from the McGraw-Hill Cos. subsidiary in 2006 and was interviewed in May near his home in Staten Island, New York. ``It was either that or skip the business. That wasn't my mandate. My mandate was to find a way. Find the way.''MORE