Today is Monday, 18 April 2011. Stock markets around the world took a dive on news that rating agency Standard and Poor's is threatening to downgrade U.S. government debt from AAA, unless sufficient progress is made on reducing deficits and national debt within two years.
Why should anyone any longer pay the slightest attention to the opinions of a company so intellectually and morally bankrupt and corrupt, that it gave, in exchange for cash, blue-chip ratings to securitizations of subprime mortgages, to collateralized debt obligations, etc., when it was obvious that the latter were toxic?
At least, when one hires a prostitute for sex, while one runs a risk of infection, one receives a good time in exchange for one's money.