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Debt Rating for the Internet Age
This is an pretty old post from my blog, which has been preserved in case its content is of any interest. You might want to go back to the homepage to see some more recent stuff.
With the recent financial crisis, and unrest in the Middle East and north Africa, there has been much talk in the news of changes to countries’ debt ratings – usually for the worse. But their scale, not to put too fine a point on it, is mad.
There’s an A, B and a C, sure. But there’s also Aaa, Aa1, Aa2, Aa3, A1, A2, A3… then we get to Baa, which is presumably index-linked to the country’s sheep industry. Then beneath that are the “Junk” ratings, which rather than being something intuitive like “F”, run the entire gamut between Ba1 and C, a total of 11 different levels.
I propose that, for the 21st Century, we establish a 21st Century naming scheme to replace these bizarre terms. The scheme would be intuitive and contemporary, and thus much more easily understood by the layman. The levels map as follows:
Moody’s Rating
New Rating
C
FFFFUUUUUUUU-
Ca
Epic Fail
Caa
OMG
B
WTF
Ba
BBQ
Baa
LOL
A
u jelly?
Aa
Epic Win
Aaa
“In light of recent unrest, Libya’s debt has been downgraded from ‘LOL’ to ‘WTF’.” See? Simple. Intuitive.
And if you clicked that link, you have no-one to blame but yourself.
Comments
I clicked the link for rollin' and youtube did this "The uploader has not made this video available in your country.
Sorry about that."
YOUTUBE SAVED ME FROM A ROLLIN'
And it was consentual.
Damnit, this is what I get for not wanting to load the video itself while in the office :(