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Is Justice Department trying to keep up US Credit Rating by intimidating Rating Agencies?
Howard Richman, 2/7/2013

Of all the rating agencies that overrated mortgage bonds in the mid 2000s, the Justice Department has singled out Standard and Poors for a court case, Standard and Poors being the only agency, so far, that has downgraded the U.S. government credit rating. Peter Morici (Fed's decision to single out Standard & Poors should raise concern) writes:

By any reasonable measure, U.S. debt and spending has reached an unsustainable level. Simply, the tax increases necessary to bring the federal deficit down to a level that would stabilize the national debt as a percentage of GDP, would certainly cause a deep recession, similar to conditions in Italy or Spain, and not yield the anticipated revenues. Hence, spending, in particular entitlement spending, must be cut; however, the President has neither admitted this situation nor shown any inclination toward real entitlement reform.

By not downgrading U.S. debt, Moody’s and Fitch, have demonstrated the same neglect to investors that all three bond rating agencies practiced during the mid-2000s — now, the Justice Department lets them pass by targeting S&P.

Supposedly, in order to protect the integrity of bond ratings, the Justice Department appears to be trying to intimidate the bond ratings agencies against acting with integrity regarding the U.S. bond rating.