Your Congres Hard at Work

So the nation's economic recovery is placed in jeopardy (if it ever left jeopardy). In a rational country, its highest representative bodies might roll up its sleeves and try to if the nation's fundamental economic problems.

In our crony elitist system, we don't fix problems, we witch-hunt people for their contrary opinions. Thus, when S&P gives its opinion on the United States' credit-worthiness, it's not an objective party performing a vital public function safeguarded by First Amendment principles, it's a totally irresponsible economic terrorist.

The Senate judiciary committee is collecting data for an Official Investigation. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is reviewing a letter from an irate Massachusetts congressman:

US Representative John F. Tierney called for hearings today on Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the US government’s long-term credit rating, saying the agency displayed a “flagrant disregard for the facts” in its decision.

One has to wonder what a Suffolk law graduate who specializes in health, labor, and education knows about ratings of governments' credit-worthiness, and why he seems to think his apparent three-day inquiry into the matter is superior to a company that does almost nothing but financial analysis. But hey, I guess he's entitled to his opinion unless, apparently, it goes against what the U.S. Congress wants.

A couple of extra points:

1. If a random in-debted jackass says that Experian had a "flagrant disregard for the facts" after it gave him a 410 credit score, unless they completely made stuff up (which, to be fair, some Nobel laureates have suggested), the person would look crazy, and generally the presumption for lower-class people is that the creditor/credit rating agency is right. Why should it be any different for governments?

2. Ratings agencies are pretty much damned either way. If they go along with the bankers, conservatively ratings things so that people have confidence in the system, they set themselves up for post-hoc blame for not doing their job (see, e.g., the inflated ratings in mid-2008). If they try to grade institutions realistically or pessimistically, they're accused as being in someone else's pocket, or being a political agent, as if S&P would risk its organization's existence for temporary political benefits.

Truth is, our Congress has better things to do, especially Rep. Tierney, who is on the higher education committee of the house that's supposed to listen to the "common people."