Monday, January 12, 2009

Bond Ratings Trending Okay

NullSpace had a take on this bond ratings story last week. Run a search on Fitch's own news release and scan for the word 'mayor', as compared to say 'oversight entities'. Also, does "fourth upgrade" mean it was upgraded one time by four different ratings agencies?

3 comments:

  1. no they all grade independently.

    fitch
    moodys
    standard and poors

    i think you can go to thier web sites for ratings history

    gl

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  2. This is part of the reason why I was upset that the NYTimes story about Pittsburgh did not mention the City's finances. The City is going to need a major level of State aid to adress the pensions and the City's debt. We got ourselves into this mess, but we will need others to help get us out. Meanwhile, though, the credit companies are only enabling us to cause ourselves more problems by upgrading our credit worthiness. Thank god nobody is willing to lend anyone any money right now.

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  3. The rating only effects the cost of insurance on the issuance. City bonds that are issued are always insured and are issued at "AAA" because the are insured.

    The rating doesn't indicate that it is time to borrow. It reflects on the ability to pay back the debt. The city is not in a position to add to it's already heafty debt load.

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