This isn't whining - the Treasury isn't simply complaining about the downgrade. They are pointing out a fact that the original justification for the downgrade was proved to be wrong, yet after realizing this S&P maintained the same conclusion based on a different set of justifications.
This would be like a student pointing out that the teacher incorrectly graded his paper; and after acknowledging that fact, the teacher maintains the same grade.
In the original guidance that S&P gave, their target level of deficits for the USA was exactly what the real plan, without their mistake, was. So the government actually is achieving exactly what S&P wanted them to achieve.
For better or for worse I believe that the reason for S&P's downgrade is that they gave guidance of $4 trillion, they didn't see a $4 trillion deal, and they would be embarrassed if they failed to downgrade given how publicly they said that they would if they didn't see $4 trillion.
> This would be like a student pointing out that the teacher incorrectly graded his paper; and after acknowledging that fact, the teacher maintains the same grade.
Way back when I was a university undergrad, I got a 0 for a proof on a statistics exam, but the proof was correct. When I showed this to the professor, she agreed, but said it wasn't the proof she was "looking for", and so the 0 stayed. Maybe she's working for S&P now.
Agreed. The real mistake made by all the rating agencies was in not downgrading the US years ago. And I say that as an American citizen who wants to be patriotic, but is just disgusted by the unrestrained spending in Washington.
If the rating agencies had all had the courage to rock the boat and drop us a point a couple years ago, I think that the sound of money going away might have woken up even our political leaders to do something to stop it.
it's easy for me to skip over this part of your comment, but the more i think about it the more it bothers me that i have absolutely no clue what you mean by that.
i agree with the rest of your comment by the the way.
If your Math professor claims you failed a midterm, then you show them they forgot to count a page's worth of marks, but they said you still the same grade because they doubted your "willingness" to pass, you'd be well within your rights to complain.
I really don't think that it is as simple as that. If your professor refused to write you a recommendation for a research position because your grades are a bit low and he doesn't think you are responsible because you were dangerously close to missing important deadlines, then you show that his grade calculation was wrong but he still won't recommend you because the second part was still true.
Well this is a difference between an A and a B. Or rather it's the difference between an AAA and an AA+, because grade inflation in the credit rating world is even worse than grade inflation in academia.
But there's a logical flaw here. Even if there was an error in the initial calculation, that doesn't mean that the end result should be different. You can show me that you actually got 81% rather than 80% if you like, but that's still a B.
I ended up going to summer school for physics because my teacher "unfairly" gave me an F. She told us at the beginning of the school year that we only had to do 10 of those honor questions (out of 20 possible) every unit and at the end of the year told us "Oh, I meant you only had to do 10 to not drop a letter grade" which was retarded and the class went nuts at this. And once, another student accidentally took home my packet for the weekend on the day it was due and when I tried explaining it to the teacher the following Monday, all she could do was smile and say I get a zero regardless. It was worth a SIXTH of my grade. She also never taught us and just threw homework and tests at us.
I was pretty pissed that I ended up getting an F instead of a C or D even. If you think an A to a B doesn't matter, change ALL your A's to B's and see how you like it being "fair". As for the credit downgrade, maybe it was right maybe it wasn't. Still trying to decide for myself.
P.S. That damn physics teacher is still teaching (aka sipping her Diet Pepsi in her chair all day) at my school.
You know, I'm not against people downvoting me, but I'd like to know why. I'd like people to tell me why they disagree so I can at least learn from my mistakes.
There are lots of legitimate reasons to complain about teachers. You gave one legit (changing course requirements midway), and lots of illegitimate ones. You do not have a respectful tone.
Plus, the fact that you would have only gotten a D makes you look retarded in the eyes of most on HN. It's hard to get sympathy from an intellectually snobby group by bragging about your failure to excel.
In short, this is not how a polite student who deserved an A but received a B/C would have responded.
What were the illegitimate reasons? I suppose the one about someone else accidentally taking my homework? I don't think I could have helped that and any reasonable teacher might have given me half credit.
I got a bad grade for lots of reasons. I hated the class. This was a teacher that tried telling me light travels at 300 meters a second. She also arbitrarily handed out grades, marking one of my answers wrong (0m/s^2) when another student got hers right (0m^2/s) when the correct unit was actually meters per second squared.
My original point was that if the Treasury was correct and S&P gave them a bad grade based on mistakes, then yes, the USA should be complaining since the bad grade does have a negative impact.
"I suppose the one about someone else accidentally taking my homework? I don't think I could have helped that and any reasonable teacher might have given me half credit."
If I were your teacher and you told me that story you would be lucky if I didn't accuse you of academic dishonesty on the spot and filed the relevant paperwork. In the absolute best case scenario, assuming your total honesty, it's yet another lame variation on "my dog ate my homework". You are responsible for your work, nobody else.
The Units (that's what they're called) are passed back to our tables the schoolday before we turn them in (she makes us turn them in 3 days before that so she can spot check them in for some reason). I was talking to her while they were being passed back and by the time I get back, it's nowhere to be found and 5 minutes later, class ends. Turns out that my friend had grabbed hers to take home but accidentally grabbed both mine and hers. Monday comes and I don't have anything to turn in and when my friend gets back on Tuesday (she was sick), she apologizes to me profusely and proceeds to explain everything to the teacher who SMILES and says "too bad". So no, it's not a lame variation of "my dog ate my homework" because my friend admitted her mistake and begged the teacher to give me more than a zero.
No, shit doesn't just happen. If you get sued for copyright infringement cause someone else broke into your network and downloaded Harry Potter and you LOSE, well, "shit happens... deal with that" right? NO, when the world isn't fair, you don't roll over and say "Shit happens". You change it and make the world a little bit better. Isn't that the goal of all entrepreneurs? And isn't that the goal of HN then? We want the world to improve and leaving an incompetent teacher in the classroom goes against every thread about Khan Academy or improving the educational system. You want me to be wrong so bad that you've forgotten the principles that HN is about. Entrepreneurship is about making the world BETTER while making some money off of it (or am I naive? I suppose maybe I'm too optimistic) and rolling over is not the right thing to do.
P.S. I dealt with it the best I could. I signed up for summer school then had a talk with the head of the science department who then investigated it. It was revealed to us that the physics teacher would be fired, but then because we couldn't find any replacement for her on short notice and because the science head was about to take maternity leave, the matter was dropped.
It's even worse when the Treasury Department does it.