Financial Times (October 20)
“In just six weeks, Truss cratered the Conservative party’s poll ratings and unleashed turmoil on financial markets. She was forced into a U-turn on her “mini” Budget involving £45bn of unfunded tax cuts, sacked her chancellor and ousted her home secretary.” After vowing to fight on, she then delivered “one of the shortest and bleakest resignation statements in modern British history: she was quitting after only 44 days in office.”
Tags: Bleakest, Budget, Conservative Party, Cratered, Financial markets, Ratings, Resignation, Shortest, Tax cuts, Truss, Turmoil, U-turn
Institutional Investor (February 2)
“What happens when a company gets an A from one ESG rater and an F from another? With the explosion of ESG data and ratings, there’s little agreement on what makes a company good or bad.”
Reuters (February 8)
“With his ratings down and state funds needed to hedge against new Western sanctions and raise living standards, Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot afford to get sucked into a costly nuclear arms race with the United States.” The tell could be seen after Donald Trump pulled out of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). Putin indicated Russia would do the same thing, but he “did not up the ante.”
Financial Times (June 30)
“The UK’s decision to leave the EU will not have any immediate, direct negative consequences for the ratings of states and major banks across Asia Pacific,” according to Fitch Ratings who also warned that “Japan could prove the exception…given the yen’s haven status and resultant strengthening posing a risk to policymakers’ planning.”
Tags: APAC, Banks, Brexit, Consequences, EU, Fitch, Haven Risk, Japan, Negative, Ratings, Sovereigns, UK, Yen
New York Times (March 23)
“It’s the one question about the 2008 financial crisis that people still ask me more than any other: Why have regulators done so little to rein in the credit rating agencies?” Despite abuses which helped create the sub-prime crisis and despite numerous resolutions to revise the regulatory environment for firms like S&P and Moody’s, little has been done. “Ratings still loom large, even after they were found to have been so disastrously inaccurate in 2008. It’s yet another example of the glacial pace of regulatory change.”
Tags: Abuses, Credit rating agencies, Financial Crisis, Moody's, Ratings, Regulators, S&P, Sub-prime crisis
Forbes (February 5)
“The U.S. Justice Department announced plans to file civil fraud charges against Standard & Poor’s (S&P) relating to the atrocious ratings that Standard & Poor’s gave to toxic subprime mortgage-backed securities…. This is a welcome—if long overdue—development for investors who have been waiting for years for the Feds to take decisive action against those responsible for crashing the world economy.”
