{"id":49001,"date":"2020-04-16T09:18:38","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T08:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=49001"},"modified":"2020-04-16T09:18:38","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T08:18:38","slug":"the-ratings-agencies-be-subject-to-enforced-silence-on-government-debt-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2020\/04\/16\/the-ratings-agencies-be-subject-to-enforced-silence-on-government-debt-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"The ratings agencies be subject to enforced silence on government debt right now"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fitch ratings agency announced overnight that:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Fitch Downgrades Mexico to 'BBB-'; Outlook Stable<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For those unfamiliar with rating agency nomenclature this means that Mexico\u2019s debt is now just above what is called \u2018junk\u2019 status.<\/p>\n

This is profoundly unhelpful. At a time when Mexico, like almost every Latin American country, is facing the challenge of coronavirus and a pile of US dollar debt over which it has almost no control as to cost, it is facing a rating agency saying that the cost of its debt servicing must basically increase through no fault at all of its own.<\/p>\n

This is argument that this can best be described as callous: Fitch is very clearly putting the interests of creditors above the lives of the people of Mexico.<\/p>\n

It can also be described as profoundly unjust: developed country debtors will profit from the crisis at cost to a developing country.<\/p>\n

It could be argued it represents a failed paradigm when governments are all that are now underpinning capitalism but are being downgraded\u00a0in the interests of rentier capitalists, nonetheless.<\/p>\n

But most it could just be called wrong. It is a symbol of all that is profoundly misguided, amoral and exploitative in the world of financial capitalism.<\/p>\n

I suggest that the rating agencies be subject to enforced silence on government debt right now. That would be a small step in the right direction to writing the wrongs they have caused for so long.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Fitch ratings agency announced overnight that: Fitch Downgrades Mexico to ‘BBB-‘; Outlook Stable For those unfamiliar with rating agency nomenclature this means that Mexico\u2019s
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