Pedro Santos Guerreiro on rating agencies as tigers

Rating agencies are as uncontrollable and merciless as tigers, the editor of the economic paper Jornal de Negócios, Pedro Santos Guerreiro, claims in the tabloid Correio da Manhã: "When tigers are born they are adorable creatures. There is no child, even adult, who would not want to have one. The problem comes when they grow up. They have an indomitable character, they are hunters, predators and they are deadly. Barack Obama can confirm this. The rating agencies dominate the financial system at the centre of which stands the United States. Now they are biting the hand that feeds them. How ironic that the US president is now complaining about the power of the agencies. The US credit status has never been lowered - but Standard & Poor's have just broken the resistance. And now the USA, which has always had the highest credit rating, is no longer inviolable. Crystal has turned to glass. Obama's reaction to Standard & Poor's was as heart-warming as any of the European countries in the same situation. The feeling of being treated unfairly, persecuted even. ... The financial system is self-devouring. Now even the USA has cottoned on. Tigers kill to survive: it's in their nature."

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