Two triple-A's, one double-A plus
Our debt is rated thus
The guys who bet on Abacus
Won't double down on us
 
America’s financial wow
Once grand and so secure
Seems fairly less substantial now
We’re standard, and we’re poor
 
The president said, Wait, S&P!
Your model's got a glitch
Before you make a mess for me,
Ask Moody's or ask Fitch
 
But S&P refused to dance
Said: No! Your risk'll show
That in finance, you're worse than France
You blow at fiscal flow
 
Split-rated
(Stated, dated, debated)
They made it formal, here in overtime
Split-rated
(Fated, 2008-ed)
In this New Normal, we're the new sub-prime
 
The nerve of rating agencies,
Now pointing at our trap
For I recall their majesties
Anointing so much crap
 
Then Fannie's choke and Lehman's croak
Left us with this distress
But the USA ain’t like those folk
We own the printing press!
 
Split-rated
(Stated, dated, debated)
They made it formal, here in overtime
Split-rated
(Fated, 2008-ed)
In this New Normal, we're the new sub-prime
 
Split-Rated!

 
MAIN vocalS: CURTIS THREADNEEDLE
GUITAR: WOLF JACKSON
MANDOLIN: FRANCES CUNNINGHAM

ARRANGEMENT: MERLE HAZARD

Special Thanks to GREG HILFMAN
AND AMI KUAN DANOFF

ILLUSTRATION: ANN SHAYNE, ISTOCKPHOTO

 

Music and video copyright 2011 by Threadneedle, Shaffer & Hazard. 
(YouTube links permitted.)