Debt Plan Includes Spending Cut ’Triggers’ With Long Histories of Failure

As they struggle to reach an agreement over how to extend the nation’s debt limit and trim budget deficits, Republicans and Democrats are turning to an enforcement tool, called a “trigger,” with a history of failure.

S&P Slammed by Wall Street Banks Over Pulled Commercial Mortgage Rating

Wall Street banks including Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank AG slammed Standard & Poor’s decision to suspend a rating on a commercial-mortgage bond that had been placed with investors after finding a flaw in the review process.

S&P stopped grading commercial-mortgage bonds as it assesses its criteria for the debt and withdrew rankings it had assigned to a $1.5 billion offering from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Citigroup Inc., according to a July 27 statement from the New York-based ratings company. The banks pulled the sale.

News Corp., Hackings and the Story I Missed: Jonathan Weil

One August afternoon almost six years ago I sat in the office of a small marketing company called Floorgraphics Inc., listening to two of its founders tell how a News Corp. (NWSA) unit had hacked into their computer system.

They were trying to get federal prosecutors interested, they said. The big question in my mind was whether I had a story I could run with. At the time I was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. (This was before News Corp. (NWS) bought the paper.) Ultimately I decided not to write about the company. And I had largely forgotten about Floorgraphics, until this month.

Treasuries Join Stocks Dropping in Markets Overwhelmed by U.S. Debt Debate

House Speaker John Boehner revised his plan yesterday to raise the debt ceiling as he gained support among fellow Republicans for a proposal Senate Democrats said won’t pass their chamber

Stocks and Treasuries are moving in tandem twice as often as they normally do, a sign investors are growing convinced the U.S. will lose its AAA credit rating and that an impasse among lawmakers may spur losses in both markets.

U.S. Credit Rating Rides on S&P’s London View of Politics on Capitol Hill

David Beers may be the most influential political commentator in the U.S. right now, even though he’s hardly a household name, that isn’t technically his job and he’s only visiting.

As the London-based managing director of sovereign credit ratings at Standard & Poor’s, Beers will help determine whether the U.S. government’s credit rating will be downgraded as a result of the battle over raising the debt limit.

Boehner Fights Internal Strife on Debt Plan

U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner.

House Speaker John Boehner, battling resistance from within his own party as he intensifies a debt- ceiling standoff with President Barack Obama, worked to salvage his plan to tie the nation’s borrowing power to spending cuts and budget controls.

With less than a week before a possible default, the Republican-led House remained on a collision course with the Senate and White House.

Wall Street Helps Boehner Boost Fundraising as House Speaker

Since January, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner has raised $6.6 million for his campaign committee, six times more than the Ohio Republican received during the same period two years ago when he was the chamber’s minority leader.

Since January, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner has raised $6.6 million for his campaign committee, six times more than the Ohio Republican received during the same period two years ago when he was the chamber’s minority leader

Three of the five biggest sources of Boehner’s campaign cash this year are employees of three Wall Street investment houses, a shift from the 2010 election cycle when such contributors weren’t ranked among his top 10 donors.