Forbes and Summers dismiss S&P’s recent credit grade

As reported by Politico (h/t Glenn Greenwald). First, Steve Forbes

…called the S&P’s downgrade of the United States Friday night from AAA to a AA+ an “outrageous” move. He argued that the downgrade wasn’t necessary since the government would be able to pay the interest and principal on bonds.

“I’m surprised Standard & Poor’s would play politics,” Forbes said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Larry Summers

…echoed Forbes’s thoughts and said the United States would be able to pay its debts. He noted that mega-investor Warren Buffett encouraged buying U.S. bonds.

“Look, Standard & Poor’s track record has been terrible, and its arithmetic is worse,” Summers said. “So there’s nothing good to say about what they’ve done.”

Related articles

• S&P targeted by top economists (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
• John Tantillo, PhD, Marketing and Branding Expert, Says Standard & Poor’s Will Soon Face Its Own Downgrade. (prweb.com)
• U.S. Credit Downgrade: Standard & Poor’s Warn More Downgrades May Come (huffingtonpost.com)
• Buffett: S&P Made a Mistake Downgrading US Credit Rating -Bloomberg (benzinga.com)
• Sunday Talking Heads: August 7, 2011 (firedoglake.com)
• US Downgraded to AA+ from AAA by Standard & Poor’s (benzinga.com)
• Q+A: S&P’s downgrade of the United States – Reuters (news.google.com)
• Guest lineups for Sunday news shows (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Standard & Poor’s Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating (npr.org)
• Emergency talks called to calm global markets turmoil (ashwathputtur.wordpress.com)