Except for the whole part about "is the SEC going to do anything about the incestuous relationship between banks and accounting agencies?", which is just sad. Since reading that Taibbi article detailing how the SEC and, yes, the Justice Dept. itself, is just as much a part of that incest (incestuous orgy? ) I don't see how the answer could be anything but "NO... HAHAHAHAHAGASP, No! *chuckle*"

The better question is whether all this is just the tip of the ice berg, if S&Ps downgrade represents the dawning realization that the corporate shell game doesn't become profitable just because it pays regulators to look the other way, but simply becomes so pervasive that when the bill finally comes due it brings down the whole planets economy. Everything from the sub-prime mortgage crisis to Mid-Eastern terrorism to Greek and British riots reads like something about of Das Kapital; personally, I still think creeping socialism is a far superior alternative to bloody communist revolutions. For that to work though government regulators must be accountable to the public, not the corporations they regulate, or they'll never hold those corporations accountable to anyone. Which, once again, is why I'm not on board with Ron Paul; this whole devastating charade is about government regulators getting paid off to ignore rather than prevent corporations defrauding the very investors laissez-faire economics is supposed to benefit. That those regulators exist and simply took corporate money to look the other way is an argument for more oversight and restrictions on corporate America, not less.