08/22/2011
Ratings agencies are the
financial world’s equivalent of today’s global “fashion dictators,” from
Gucci, Dior, to Louis Vuitton, who decide what’s in and hot from the
ramps of Paris or Milan. In the same way that fashion aficionados look
to these luxury brands for the latest trends, presented in glossy sheen
by the leading magazines, high-end department stores, boutiques, and
celebrity “fashionistas,” ratings agencies are dutifully followed by the
investment world’s big and small fund speculators, investors, and
banks.
Down a rung or two, so-called “pirates” — both fashion and
financial — from Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shenzhen, or Manila always keep a
close watch to get their new line of pirated designs or passed down
prognoses of financial ratings agencies, which then enable them to
partake of the “killing.”
For them to succeed in mesmerizing the
masses whose pockets are the goal, the global mass media is
indispensable. Day in and day out, this mass media churns out fashion
and financial glitter to keep audiences in rapt embrace.
While I
have not followed the fashion scene for quite some time, I get the
impression that the dearth of new names making an impact both here and
abroad may well be one of the signs of the times of declining economic
fortunes and increasing misery.
As I have been following more
closely the financial ratings agencies, I have helped in aggressively
debunking the myth of their validity, reliability, and relevance for
real financial and economic evaluation of the global and national
economy. In fact, this space is only one of the very few critical of the
so-called big three — Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s, and Fitch Ratings —
which mainstream business media consider as the gods of their financial
Mount Olympus.
In the past decade, we were among the few voices
in the wilderness on this matter; but ever since the Global Financial
Crash of ‘08, where these ratings agencies still spouted rosy prognoses
of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, AIG, and other financial houses the
day before the sky fell on them, the world’s view of them have already
taken a negative turn.
For sure, Standard and Poor’s credit
downgrade of the US a week ago while Obama and the Republican-dominated
House were in the thick of their “debt cap” debates has not helped
either, especially since Moody’s and Fitch weighed in with their
positive ratings just a few days after American political and financial
authorities raised their vehement objections.
As I have written
before, both China and Europe have since reacted against these ratings
agencies. China set up its own called Dagong after declaring the
traditional ratings agencies as “unreliable,” whereas Europe threatened
to establish its own after the big three downgraded Portugal and Spain’s
credit-worthiness at a crucial moment of the EU (European Union)’s
recovery economic efforts. As these ratings agencies are now in
disarray, all we can say is “Good riddance!”
Similarly, we also
want to call attention to the western “international” news agencies such
as Reuters, Associated Press (both British), and Agence France Presse
(French). Like the top fashion houses, these major news wires
practically dictate the world’s news trends and, when they choose, even
the direction of national news stories.
Many Filipino newspapers,
broadcast networks, and news writers take these major news wires’
reports as gospel truth and repeat whatever is fed to them over and over
until every Juan, Pedro and Maria believe these to be gospel truth.
Let’s
take the latest news from the Associated Press (AP) about Libya where
its headline says, “Libyan rebels: Key city, oil terminal seized,” as
well as Reuters’ “Libya rebels strategic town (Zawiyah) near Triopli”
and Agence France Presse (AFP)’s “Fighting erupts in Tripoli as rebels
say regime is doomed,” all of which are not balanced by news such as
those coming from Russia Today (RT) on statements by the Libyan
government’s official spokesman belying these claims, which are never
reported by the three major Western news agencies.
Each morning,
after perusing all the major national newspapers on the Internet, I
shift to reading Press TV (official news wire of Iran), RT (Russian
cable news), Prison Planet (a dissident Web site in the US),
GlobalResearch or the Centre for Research on Globalization (an
anti-globalist Web site), China Daily, and Asia Times. When I turn on my
Destiny Cable, I go immediately to RT and CCTV 9, and only scan CNN,
BBC and Al Jazeera briefly. You’d be surprised at the utter Western
media bias. For example, it is only from RT that I get this report:
“Independent
journalist Lizzie Phelan says the reports are an effort by Natp to
create panic. ‘The only gunfire that we are hearing is celebratory
gunfire,’ she said. ‘And the only explosions that we are hearing are
Nato air strikes or Natp sound bombs, which are clearly designed to
create a sense of panic in… Tripoli.’
Phelan said that the Libyan rebels
created fake footage of themselves in Zawiyah and Tripoli, and were
aided in disseminating the footage by, among other media outlets, Al
Jazeera. The Qatar-based satellite television station… has been at the
center of the media conspiracy against Libya. The Western mainstream
media, she continued, in turn picked up these reports and repeated them,
creating a sense of panic among the Libyan people. Later… a number of
armed gangs emerged… sleeper cells of rebels… (which) began firing
randomly and threatening ordinary people… ‘They then took footage of the
empty streets, which created the sense that they were in the process of
capturing the city.’”
Al Jazeera, financed by a
Western-controlled potentate, the Emir of Qatar, has been at the
forefront of the disinformation campaign against Libya, starting with
the fake news of Gaddafi’s jets bombing demonstrators back in February —
news which CNN and BBC then repeated endlessly. Like fashion czars and
financial ratings agencies of the West, these major news wires are mere
tools of foreign financial predators. Time for the public to wake up!
(Tune
in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 5 to 7
p.m., and Tuesday, Thursday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with
HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny
Cable Channel 8, on “Coconut vs. Alzheimer’s”; also visit
http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio
archives)
(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel)
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL:
http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110822com5.html
