U.S. bank downgrades loom

How many rating agencies were proactive in early to mid 2008?   Now that the cat's out of the bag, they all rush to be proactive. As Jim suggests, perhaps their actions reflect the intention of the men behind the curtain.  Or,  maybe it's easier to jump on a bandwagon that's already moving.

The section of the piece that caught me eye was the following observation,

It may also become more difficult for consumers and businesses to borrow money if banks decide they need to hold onto their cash in order to meet their liquidity needs, Bush said. "It certainly does not help the cause of easing credit," she said.

Sounds like the Great Depression to me.

Headline: U.S. bank downgrades loom

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Downgrade fever has been sweeping across the European banking system, and the major Wall Street banks are likely to be the next to get sick. Rating agency Moody's cut ratings for five banking groups in the Netherlands, three in France and one in Luxembourg Friday. Dutch giants ING (ING) and ABN Amro were among the banks downgraded. Next up for the rating agency are banks in the U.K.. as well as 17 major banks with "global capital markets operations." That includes Wall Street firms Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500).

Source: money.cnn.com

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