Rip the Political Masks off the Three Most Famous Credit Rating Agencies

Published in Huanqiu
(China) on 20 February 2012
by Jiang Yong (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Yipeng Xie. Edited by Tom Proctor.
In less than two months after the new year, Standard & Poor’s, Fitch and Moody have lowered the ratings of many European countries. Obviously, on the euro zone’s road to extricate itself from the debt crisis, these rating agencies are insurmountable obstacles. 

It should have been the rating agencies’ job to help discover risks and indicate the right investment direction. However, what people have seen for many years is that these three most famous rating agencies have not effectively discovered risks in time, but have created and even exacerbated the crisis. As the saying goes, “one word determines a fate; one sentence ruins a whole country.” Since then, the consequence is that international finance has never been stable and the global economy has been contaminated. The problem is this: The three most famous rating agencies not only keep making mistakes, but also refuse to declare any responsibilities. They don’t even feel guilt or the need for introspection. To the contrary, they insist on making mistakes, never cease to gain benefits and continue the insanity.  

Their key supporters, Wall Street and the government, the most powerful market and government respectively, should account for the unscrupulousness of the three rating agencies. The three rating agencies have long abandoned their credo of “scientific, fair and objective.” They have become the masks of Wall Street’s opportunistic pillage and the tools for the government to maintain U.S. economic power and wangle political benefits for internal political competition.

The rating agencies are only members of the Wall Street financial benefit groups for the core purpose of opportunism. For example, the main shareholders and also the big clients of Moody, the biggest rating agency, include Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Cooperation, Citi Bank, Goldman Sachs and the like. Goldman Sachs helped the former Greek government join the euro zone by falsifying some facts. Then, it provided the information to rating agencies and chose the right opportunity to collapse Greek bonds and the Euro. Finally, when the rating agencies claimed "The tempest is coming," Greece fell and the Euro debt crisis erupted. Wall Street's tremendous profits are obtained through opportunistic activities. The rating agencies are only masks of Wall Street's opportunistic pillage.

Last year, Standard & Poor's was so audacious that it lowered the credit rating of the United States. The whole world was surprised and the United States was stunned. The aggressive Republicans took this chance to trap the Democrats and blamed the Obama administration for ineptitude and inefficiency that led to the loss of the 94-year AAA rating. The Republicans, obviously, support Standard & Poor's. The reasons are conspicuous: It is not a secret that the Republicans align themselves with Wall Street, and therefore it is logical for them to take advantage of Wall Street to refute and attack the Democrats under the atmosphere of stiffened and polarized U.S. politics. Hence, the rating agencies have secretly become the tools of the domestic competition between parties and conflicts of group interest.

In fact, Standard & Poor's withdrew the AAA rating from the U.S. because it recognized that the market no longer regards U.S. bonds as zero-risk. However, the withdrawal of the AAA rating at least means that developed countries, especially those with huge economies, will no longer have AAA rating, simply because the U.S. needs to keep U.S. dollars shiny, unique and the first choice of the global investors in the basket of "rotten apples." U.S. dollars and the international monetary system led by U.S. dollars are America's core interests. The U.S., taking advantage of its leading role in the world, infinitely prints and issues U.S. dollars, exports the depreciated dollars to the world and imports reasonable commodities and services. This is done to be parasitic to the world by taking advantage of the system "FRS — Wall Street — Central Banks in other countries" to launch the U.S. dollar’s international circuit. The rating agencies are the crucial tools in the U.S. dollar’s international circuit. Since the eruption of the 2008 sub-prime mortgage crisis, U.S. dollars have plummeted three times and re-increased along with the depreciation of Euros. The depreciation of Euros happened right at the point when the Euro debt crisis appeared and exacerbated. The rating agencies created this point. Obviously, the rating agencies have become a tool of the U.S. economy's hegemony.

International society has an increasing recognition of the real functions of rating agencies as masks and tools. South Korea, India and other Asian countries keep seeking strategies to protect themselves; the E.U. counterattacks with various strategies; and China also actively supports a domestic rating business to maintain an active leading and financial speaking role.


 新一年开始不到两个月,标普、惠誉和穆迪三大评级机构对欧洲多国评级都进行了调降。显然,在欧元区摆脱债务危机的路上,评级机构是一个绕不过去的绊脚石。


  评级机构的职能原本是帮助发现风险,指示投资方向。但是,多年来世人见到的是,三大机构非但不能及时有效发现风险,还屡屡制造或加剧危机。一言定生死,一语乱城邦。国际金融因此动荡不宁,世界经济因此乌烟瘴气。问题是,三大机构一错再错,却不承担任何责任,也没有丝毫的歉疚与反省。反而变本加厉,把错误坚持到底,把私利彰显到底,把疯狂进行到底。

三大评级机构猖狂,实乃有恃无恐,关键是得到了华尔街、华盛顿——当今最有力量的政府与市场的鼎力支撑。三大评级机构早就抛弃它们所标榜的“科学、公正、客观”的神话,成了华尔街投机抢劫、谋取商业利益的面具,成了华盛顿维护美国经济强权、获取政治利益的工具,成了美国内政治博弈与集团斗争的道具。


  评级机构其实只是华尔街以投机为核心的金融利益集团一分子,例如最大评级机构穆迪的主要股东同时又是大客户,就有巴菲特的伯克希尔•哈撒韦公司、花旗、高盛等。高盛协助原希腊政府在加入欧元区时掺杂使假,其信息可以提供给评级机构,然后选择适当时机,做空希腊债券,做空欧元。最后由评级机构一声大喊“暴风雨就要来啦”!希腊便应声倒地,欧债危机便由此爆发。华尔街的巨额利润多半都是通过投机而来,评级机构只是华尔街投机抢劫的一种面具。


  标普去年竟然吃了熊心,吞了豹胆,降低了美国主权信用评级。世界哗然,美国震惊。在野的共和党借机向民主党发难,指责奥巴马团队执政无能,治理无方,丢掉维持94年的AAA评级。共和党显然在为标普撑腰。个中原委也很简单,共和党与华尔街的同盟早就是公开秘密,在美国政治日趋僵化、极化的情势下,利用华尔街来否定、敲打民主党非常合乎逻辑。如此,评级机构也悄然成为美国内政党政治博弈与集团利益斗争的道具。


  实际上,标普拿掉美国AAA评级,只是对事实的一种确认,因为市场早就不再把美国国债视为零风险。但是,美国失去AAA评级,至少意味着,世界尤其是经济大国,不再会有AAA。道理简单,就是要在世界可投资的证券资产的一筐烂苹果中,确保美元资产保持最不烂的色泽,如此无可替代,依旧是世界投资者的必然选择。美元以及美元主导的国际货币体系是美国的核心利益。美国利用国际主导地位,无限印刷、发行美元,然后利用“美联储—华尔街—各国央行”这一系统发动美元国际环流,将急剧贬值的美元输送给世界,给美国带回世界优质的商品与服务,实现对世界的寄生。评级机构就是美元国际环流这一系统装置的一类重要工具。2008年次贷危机爆发以来,美元出现三轮暴跌行情,都是以欧元贬值为拐点实现反弹。而欧元贬值发生在欧债危机出现与恶化之时,这个时点正是评级机构所创造的。很显然,评级机构成了美国经济强权的工具。


  对于评级机构的面具、道具、工具的本质及其危害,国际社会的认知越来越清晰,韩国、印度等亚洲国家正不断采取措施进行防范;欧盟也使出各种招式进行反击;中国也积极扶植民族评级企业,试图掌控评级主导权与金融话语权。
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