Is it just me, or does news like this seem strange and meaningless...

In Publisher's Lunch today, we learn this news:

[quote]


Advertisement


S&P Downgrades B&N Shares, Upgrades Amazon Credit Rating
Standard & Poor has downgraded Barnes & Noble stock from "hold" to "strong sell", noting that B&N shares "have risen about 40% over the past 3 months and are now trading well above" S&P's target price. The firm also expects further weakening in sales over the next fiscal year and is "also concerned by the long-term trend of declining adult readership levels."

B&N's Board of Directors also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.25 per share, payable on March 31 to stockholders of record at the close of business on March 10.
Business Week

Amazon's Credit Upgraded; Kindle Expansion Hitch
S&P also bumped up Amazon's credit rating one notch to 'BBB-' from 'BB+', citing the company's "strong brand, robust performance, and improved credit-protection metrics" during a "difficult retail environment."

[/quote]


So... Books are apparently not as strongly rated as the toxic housing bubble that nearly collapsed Western civilization on your watch?

One product created in America, with the labor of Americans, and an industry where America dominates is book media. Want to talk about American values, and American workers, producing real, tangible products of value all over the world, politicians?

Well, it may not be as sexy as Philadelphia steel, but I think books are tops.

Also, I don't believe S&P's ratings in the slightest. They have a long way to go until they earn my trust again, after rating a repackaging of toxic mortgages in the AAAs.