Dispute Over ‘Basic Math’ Began With S&P E-Mail to U.S. Treasury
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The e-mail message that unleashed hours of debate between U.S. Treasury Department officials and Standard & Poor’s arrived at 1:45 p.m. on Aug. 5, just as U.S. and European stock markets were limping toward the end of their worst week since 2008.
Something didn’t look right to John Bellows, the Treasury’s acting assistant secretary for economic policy. He found what he later called a $2 trillion “basic math error” in the e-mail, a preliminary press release announcing S&P’s first-ever downgrade of U.S. creditworthiness.