The reason being the owners of Standard & Poor’s are McGraw Hill & Co., who benefited immensely during the Bush years from federal legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act. These are the same folks who also made money when they slapped the triple-A rating on susceptible mortgage-backed securities sales, which led in part to the financial meltdown — a major reason for the bailouts of the banking institutions, and therefore, the rise of the recent debt.
If there was one thing the U.S. always had going for it, it was the independent-mindedness of its various institutions, both in and out of the government. Over the last 30 years, there has been a slow erosion of this great asset which puts the U.S. on a par with Third World nations and other rogue nations where a few plutocrats call the shots. Even the judiciary is now viewed suspiciously as it is stacked with “activist judges” who give short shrift to states rights, such as the Supreme Court of the United States, when they overrode the Florida Supreme Court’s decision to count all the votes in the 2000 presidential election.
All these things did not occur in a vacuum, as nothing does. I think we can thank those in the media establishment for doing their part in helping turn a first-rate economic power into an also-ran in such short a time.
MATT PHILIPS
Mangilao, Guam
