La cotation AAA et le complot de Wall Street

La cotation AAA et le complot de Wall Street

Le site MediaMatters.org (de gauche US) cite avec une certaine ironie et un réel scepticisme l’humoriste de l’idéologie extrémiste républicaine Rush Limbaugh, exposant que la menace de rétrogradation de la cotation AAA pour les USA, par la société de cotation Moody’s (puis S&P, depuis) est un complot démocrate pour forcer le Congrès (les républicains) à céder face au président Obama sur la question de la dette. Les agences de cotation lient effectivement cette menace au succès des négociations entre le président et le Congrès, alors que le président vient de lancer un ultimatum aux républicains.

MediaMatters.org écrit, le 14 juillet 2011 :

«On his radio show today, Rush Limbaugh expounded a theory that Moody's Investors Service is beholden to “Democrat Party” interests due to the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory bill, suggesting that its warning of a downgrade in the U.S. credit rating if the debt ceiling is not raised by August 2 is a result of Moody's knowing “which side of the bread their butter is on.” Limbaugh offered no specific evidence to back up his theory:

»LIMBAUGH: “By the way, lest we forget on this Moody's business. Congress tightened its regulation of credit ratings companies last year with the so-called Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Consumer Protection Act. Yes, that Wall Street – that financial regulatory reform bill included in it regulation of credit rating companies like Moody's. So these companies, like Moody's, know which side of the bread their butter is on. They realize that they now have to toe the line and advance the interests of the Democrat Party. Bill Hemmer today on Fox asked Stuart Varney, look, Stuart, are these guys totally objective? Stuart Varney said, they say they are. They say they are and we have to take them at their word.

»“It was clear to me that to Stuart Varney, Moody's is the gold standard, they're God. They're the absolute truth, they don't lie, they don't make it up. But all I know is that they are now regulated under the Financial Regulatory Reform Act, and that tells me they know what they have to do to stay safe, and that's advance the interest of the Democrat Party. But still, let's think about it: Obama is elected president, a mere two and half years later Moody's is talking about possibility of the United States defaulting on our debt. Aside from the fact that it's really a coincidence, does anybody really -- I mean, how in the world does anybody even talk about this guy seriously getting re-elected?” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 7/14/11]»

Mais il semble que cela (la thèse du complot, l’appréciation du rôle des démocrates, de Wall Street, etc.) ne soit pas une fantaisie du seul Limbaugh, connu pour ses fantaisies. L’idée est également développée par Justin Raimondo, dans sa chronique d’Antiwar.com, ce même 14 juillet 2011, cette fois pour avancer l’idée que Wall Street vient ainsi au secours de la politique étrangère belliciste (démocrate) d’Obama et de la position à prétention hégémonique des USA, qui seraient menacées par un affrontement et un blocage au sommet du pouvoir sur la question de la dette, – politique extérieure et position hégémonique où Wall Street a beaucoup d’intérêts. Ainsi, l’intervention des agences de cotation, pour faire pression sur les protagonistes des négociations, risque-t-elle, au contraire, d’accroître le fossé en alimentant l’idée d’une démarche suscitée par Wall Street (“complot”), contre le parti républicain.

«The problem is dramatically illustrated by our current debate over the “debt ceiling” crisis. In order to reassure themselves – and, more importantly, the public – that they aren’t just madmen, Congress imposed on itself a “debt ceiling” beyond which they are not supposed to go. In reality, however, they have raised the ceiling whenever they’ve felt like it. Now, however, as the imminence of America’s bankruptcy has impressed itself on increasing numbers of voters, there is some resistance to raising it – and, as a result, there is panic in Washington. Are the peons objecting to Washington’s assumption of absolute power, and actually challenging the elite’s ability to spend without limit? Horrors!

»For months, the pundits and Washington think-tank know-it-alls have been in a tizzy: who do these unwashed peasants think they are? But of course we’ve got to raise the debt ceiling – after all, what about the “full faith and crédit” of the United States? Don’t these denizens of flyover country realize they don’t have a choice in the matter? And now, with unmistakable finality, Wall Street has spoken in the form of Moody’s and S&P, the bonds rating agencies, which are threatening to downgrade US bonds if Congress fails to raise the limit.

»This should give the ordinary American a clue as to what is at stake here, and who is on what side: it’s the Washington insiders and Wall Street versus the people of the United States – and the stakes are the fate of the nation.»

...Une autre conséquence de cette suspicion nouvelle, conséquence assez ironique, serait d'accélérer, cette fois à partir des USA eux-mêmes, la contestation déjà très forte en Chine et en Europe de la position de juges suprêmes des situations économiques des agences US de cotation. La contestation aux USA même des agences de cotation US, considérées comme une arme économique US, rend compte de l'intensité de la crise du pouvoir.

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