Standard & Poor’s has now come to Lehman Brothers’ defense, saying that the counterparty credit rating of Lehman remains high. S&P gives Lehman a counterparty credit risk rating of “A/A-.”
S&P said the persistent and ongoing pressure on Lehman’s stock price in recent days has not hurt Lehman’s liquidity, funding and client business. But the rating firm expressed concerns that these pressures complicate the operating environment for Lehman, which was downgraded in June.
“We are concerned that ill-founded and persistent pressures on Lehman’s stock unnecessarily prolong what is already a very challenging business environment,” it said.
The Friday before Bear Stearns needed to be bailed out by the Federal Reserve arranging its acquisition by JP Morgan, S&P lowered Bear Stearns counterparty credit rating to BBB from A, and its short-term rating to A-3 from A-1.
S&P says Lehman counterparty credit profile solid [Reuters]
Lehman’s Stock Slide Hasn’t Hurt Firm’s Liquidity, S&P Says AND U.S. Credit Rating `Well Within’ Aaa, Moody’s Says (Update1)…
well it’s just all f’in sunshine and rainbows, now isn’t it!
mother of all, so it was S&P in the library with a really heavy pimp cup to the brow!
i nominate the citi analysts be thrown in jail for rumor mongering that fings are in good shape at freddie/fannie and jimmy’s
And Enron was still investment-grade until four days before it went tango uniform. The real question is, how do these rating agency stooges have any credibility at all left?
I blame grade inflation. Since nobody gets C’s anymore in school, they get all whiny if their bonds get one after they get a job. I mean, I’ve seen resumes where people got 5.1 grade averages out of 5. What does that even mean?
Anyway. Yeah. Those credit ratings are nonsensical. How many levels are there? Just for basic financials at S&P I count forty-two possible ratings which are above “don’t lend these guys subway fare.” How anybody can claim a system with enough complexity to assign a borrower one of forty-two possible ratings is reliable is beyond me. (Note that I didn’t say “consistent.” I have no trouble believing it could produce consistent results. I just wouldn’t rely on them.)
M
hahaha
SHORT S&P — THEY ARE NEXT!!!
Next thing you know, they’ll come out saying that it was a “computer glitch” that caused Lehman to be rated “A/A-”.