S&P's powerful chief steps out of the shadows

[xchrom]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/sampps-powerful-chief-steps-out-of-the-shadows-2333592.html

Some time last Friday night, someone created a Wikipedia page for David T Beers. Overdue, you might think.

Mr Beers might be the most powerful man in the world that you've never heard of. He is the head of sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor's, which means that at the world's largest credit rating agency, he is responsible for the grades it slaps on each of the world's governments. And last Friday night, his team decided the US was no longer the risk-free AAA nation that it has been for the past 70 years. That night, Mr Beers changed the financial world.

So, yes, now he has a Wikipedia page. And yesterday, he was out of the shadows and on Fox News, of all places, explaining to a mystified country who he is, what gives S&P the right to pontificate on the creditworthiness of the US, and why it has stripped the US of its gold-plated rating.

The chain-smoking, moustachioed economist has been at S&P for more than 20 years, after an earlier career assessing government bonds for the Wall Street bank Salomon Brothers.

[NightWatcher]

1. Also, the CEO of S&P's parent co is a huge Romney supporter

We are learning to what lengths his supporters will go. They'll create secretive LLC's to funnel him million dollar donations then disappear.

[leftynyc]

5. Where is that info from?

About S&P CEO being a Romney supporter

[nc4bo]

2. Didn't watch a lot of the media coverage since the downgrade was announced

so I'm curious if Beers made the M$M circuit or was this appearance a Republican/Murdoch exclusive?

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Was he a member of the Federal Reserve in the 80s too?

I just did a google search on him and someone with his exact name was.

This guy is off the radar if you do a search on him.

[nc4bo]

4. You're right, very little background info.

Totally unrelated and from '09; S&P is also guilty of funneling jobs overseas. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2009-08-14/news/28447217_1_deven-sharma-roopa-kudva-ratings

POTUS made a big taa-doo about this trade agreement with India. How it'd bring 50-60k jobs to the U.S. yet here's another example of losing jobs, in this case, with the same country that will supposedly supply jobs.

Who wins the jobs for the American people here?

MUMBAI: An increasing number of rating statements by Standard & Poor's will have a Mumbai dateline as the company moves more of its analytical jobs to India. S&P, which already carries out some ratings work for the Asean region out of Mumbai, would move more work to the city as business picks up, Deven Sharma, president, S&P's, told ET.

"After we acquired a controlling stake in Crisil in 2005, S&P has built a very good external outsourcing business in terms of equity research and other capital market related analytical and knowledge processing outsourcing business," Mr Sharma said. He added that S&P has moved some of its cross-border ratings team from Singapore to Mumbai.

Although, S&P owns Crisil, it has a separate ratings business in India under S&P which caters to the international market. In addition to this, there is an offshoring team in Crisil that supports the rest of the world analytical processes for S&P. According to Mr Sharma, Crisil's business has grown five times since the acquisition.

This is a good time to know how to get to the "deep internets" for more information.

[truedelphi]

6. Yet people like Beers are directly controlling

Our way of life.

That old canard of a film, "Wall Street" gave us a glimpse into who the major players happen to be.
Though the film looked at the business end, not the regulatory and ratings end of things.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. Yup. These are the people who we mean when we say "They"

[MilesColtrane]

8. "what gives S&P the right to pontificate on the creditworthiness of the US"

The Constitution