The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Senators say cooperation needed post-S&P downgrade
- S&P executive: 1 in 3 chance of future downgrade
- Iran's oil minister: Replace foreign oil companies
| Senators say cooperation needed post-S&P downgrade Posted: 07 Aug 2011 05:07 PM PDT WASHINGTON: Two senators and former presidential candidates say Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating speaks to the need for more bipartisan compromise - but they also say the blame lay with the other party. John Kerry was the Democratic nominee for president in 2004, and John McCain was the Republican nominee in 2008. Appearing Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Kerry called S&P's decision a "tea party downgrade." The Massachusetts Democrat says he believes that tea party supporters in the House are holding up progress. McCain says he too would like to see more cooperation, but the Arizona Republican says President Barack Obama is at fault. McCain says the president failed to lead and did not present a clear plan during the debt-ceiling debate. - AP Latest business news from AP-Wire Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
| S&P executive: 1 in 3 chance of future downgrade Posted: 07 Aug 2011 05:05 PM PDT WASHINGTON: A top political adviser to President Barack Obama blamed the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating on tea party Republicans, whom he said were unwilling to compromise on how to reduce the federal debt. Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that the decision by the Standard & Poor's credit agency to downgrade the U.S. from AAA to AA+ for the first time was strongly influenced by weeks of standoff between Democrats and Republicans over the debt. Axelrod called the action "a tea party downgrade" and says it's clearly on the backs of lawmakers who were willing to see the country default to get their way. Tea party activists are a loose-knit coalition of community groups made up of people with conserative views; many of the movement's candidates oppose tax increases and back balanced budget amendments. Axelrod also criticized Republican presidential candidates for not speaking up in favor of compromise. Earlier, an S&P official said there is a 1 in 3 chance that the U.S. credit rating could be downgraded another notch if conditions erode over the next six to 24 months. The credit rating agency's managing director, John Chambers, told ABC's "This Week" that if the fiscal position of the U.S. deteriorates further, or if political gridlock tightens even more, a further downgrade is possible. Chambers also said that it would take "stabilization and eventual decline" of the federal debt as a share of the economy as well as more consensus in Washington for the U.S. to win back a top rating. S&P downgraded the U.S. rating Friday, from AAA to AA+, for the first time. Meanwhile, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he expects the stock market slide to continue in the wake of a decision by S&P to downgrade the U.S. credit rating. Appearing Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Greenspan said markets will take time to bottom out and that he expects a negative reaction on Monday to the S&P action. But Greenspan also said he doesn't see any risk in investing in the United States and says that S&P's downgrade won't change that. The former Fed chairman said the downgrade "hit a nerve" and is damaging to the psyche of the country. But he said he can't foresee a scenario in which the U.S. will default on its debts. - AP Latest business news from AP-Wire Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
| Iran's oil minister: Replace foreign oil companies Posted: 07 Aug 2011 05:03 PM PDT TEHRAN, Iran: Iran's new oil minister says he wants the Revolutionary Guard's economic conglomerate to replace foreign gas and oil companies, the official IRNA news agency reported. The minister, Rostam Qasemi, had been the chief of the economic conglomerate until his appointment last week to the government post. The economic conglomerate, Khatam-ol-Anbiya, is the Revolutionary Guard's most important economic unit and is the largest contractor of government projects including major oil and gas projects. "Khatam-ol-Anbiya ... should convert to a successor to foreign big companies," Qasemi said, according to IRNA. His remark is seen as a reaction to the pressure that sanctions are putting on foreign companies working in Iran. Several oil companies, including Total SA and Royal Dutch Shell, have withdrawn from the country over the past years. Some Chinese and Indian companies are still working there. Qasemi said Khatam-ol-Anbia should be improved and said he still feels that he is still working for the Guard. "I am assigned to the Oil Ministry, but I am obsessed by the Guards," he said, according to IRNA. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, chief of the Guards, also sought a bigger economic role for the unit. "The Guards should have a pioneer role in the economic fronts in the country," Jafari said, according to the semiofficial Mehr news agency. "There is a special expectation from the Oil Ministry. The sources should be spent for infrastructure projects." Khatam-ol-Anbiya has some $25 billion contracts in various oil and gas projects in Iran. The United States accuses Khatam-ol-Anbiya of funneling revenues from its construction business back into Iran's nuclear program, which Washington suspects aims to develop atomic weapons. Tehran denies Western allegations that it is pursuing nuclear weapons and says its program is for peaceful purposes such as power generation. Iran is in need of both foreign investment and technology to upgrade its vital oil industry, which represents some 80 percent of its foreign revenue. Qasemi said Saturday that Iran will need some $40 billion in the current year to develop oil and gas fields. - AP Latest business news from AP-Wire Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
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