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Santa Claus and the S&P Market Crash  Santa Claus and the S&P
Market Crash  Dean Baker The New Republic, August 27, 2011  See
edited version on original website  Most adults know that there
is no Santa Claus. They should also know that there was no stock
market crash associated with the Standard and Poor’s downgrade
of U.S. government debt. However, because powerful interests
want to spread misinformation about the downgrade, people are
likely to be much better informed about Santa Claus.  Before
addressing the specifics of the S&P downgrade and its impact on
the market it is important to discuss some background. S&P gave
investment grade ratings to hundreds of billions of dollars of
subprime mortgage-backed securities – the asset at the center of
the 2008 financial crisis. It also gave top investment grade
ratings to both Lehman and AIG until the days of their
bankruptcy, or bailout