Airplane Circling Wall Street With Banner: 'Thanks For The Downgrade. You Should All Be Fired'

On Tuesday, less than a week after Standard and Poor's downgraded U.S. credit for the first time in history, a plane circled lower Manhattan with a banner that read: "Thanks for the downgrade. You should all be fired," according to a tweet by AmericanBanker. It has since come out that the stunt was paid for by an unnamed broker from St. Louis, according to Fortune.

But if the patron had gotten her first choice, the plane would have been circling another city center.

"I originally wanted to fly it over Washington, D.C., but learned that you can't do that," she told Fortune anonymously, for fear of losing her job. "So I chose Wall Street instead, but didn't specifically intend it to fly over S&P."

"She’s not mad at S&P, she’s mad at Washington D.C.," a friend of the broker told The New York Observer, "She called me up to have me talk her out of it, and of course, I didn’t, because I think it’s funnier than s**t.”

Scroll down for photos taken by Twitter user @stepliana and Chris Egebo.

Comments

[williamaveryhudson]

01:26 PM on 08/16/2011

Wait a minute. FAA enforces a no-fly zone anywhere near Congress, but deems lower Manhattan fair game for anyone with access to an airplane?

[Toriam]

01:27 AM on 08/12/2011

It's very good to see personal expression is still alive and well in the U.S. So many people are shell shocked at the disgusting congress inability to cooperate. The republicans must return to Sesame Street so they learn the meaning of the word cooperate.

[jon1776]

04:36 PM on 08/11/2011

There was another plane today - Downgrade hurts but USD no Ruble. Always be frugal.
Sometimes, the only way to reach Washington or Wall St is through messages on a plane...
http://www.befrugal.com/blog/be-frugal-news/downgrade-hurts-but-usd-no-ruble-always-be-frugal/

[moutonnoir]

07:48 PM on 08/12/2011

durrrr? ahdurrr!

[VillainUs]

01:32 PM on 08/11/2011

Who cares what S&P thinks? Obviously not buyers of US treasuries. Nor should they.

S&P rated Enron as AAA. They rated toxic mortgage-back securities as AAA.

Treasuries will be safe as long as America exists. And if America goes down, the liquidity of the treasury market will be the least of our problems.

But I do agree that they should be forced to get real jobs. Failing that, though, we should just ignore them.

[headstrong]

08:11 AM on 08/11/2011

They shouldn't be fired, but rather, arrested and jailed. Throw away the key, too!

[SoylentGreenIsPeople]

11:47 PM on 08/10/2011

CNBC business channel: This is creates an unfriendly business environment ! Harrumph

[Ian Faus]

01:23 AM on 08/11/2011

CNBC is only interested in how many traders are watching its show. It doesn't give a crap about the market or the economy.

[mom2luke]

11:10 PM on 08/10/2011

False equity. Fire the GOP...they were the ones that wouldn't raise money to pay our debts. jerks.

[conexn]

12:15 PM on 08/11/2011

No fire the Dems, they ran for 2 years without a budget, just spend and spend with no end in sight. Now the Dems want to spend more, more borrowed money, we are at 100% of our GDP, how in the world are we ever going to pay it back? I am about to come into several million dollars, 60+, after years of scratching a broke A$$, I would love to start a business but I am holding off because of the extra taxes the Dems would want from me. But you cannot keep using a credit card to pay bills just to get you by; it will cost you your credit in the end, like it just did to the US.

Solution: 1. Get rid of Obama, his green agenda is killing this country. Yes we need other alt means but not pushed down our throats. 2. Stop slowing down drilling in the gulf, stopping all the gulf drilling killed 10,000 of thousands of jobs, also caused our gas prices to jump, tired of paying almost 4.00 dollars a gal. 3. Stop with all the over regulation, (i.e. our coal) electric bills are going to start going up very soon. 4. Stop with entitlements, I do not see anywhere in the constitution or bill of rights that says this country should give you anything. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, you have to work for it, not have it taken from you.

[Angie Tyne 1]

03:25 PM on 08/11/2011

Facts:
- Deficits spiked under each republican president and went down under democratic ones.
From US govt spending.com
http://tinyurl.com/42n2pcl

- Taxes're lower w/Obama. We should be in a boom according to trickle down.
http://tinyurl.com/3sbnwss

- US/DOL Unemployment spiked higher in Reagan's first two years. It was over 10% for almost a year. He wasn't dealing w/a massive market crash.
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/srgate
Enter: LNS14000000
Select 1960 for start and click retrieve. Show graph if you like.

Reagan raised taxes on the rich!
http://tinyurl.com/2ew3hml

- House JEC report, 1996; Republican majority:
http://tinyurl.com/4ruof

"The share of the income tax burden borne by the top 10 percent of taxpayers increased from 48.0 percent in 1981 to 57.2 percent in 1988. Meanwhile, the share of income taxes paid by the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers dropped from 7.5 percent in 1981 to 5.7 percent in 1988.

A middle class of taxpayers can be defined as those between the 50th...95th percentile (those earning between $18,367 and $72,735 in 1988). Between 1981..1988, the income tax burden of the middle class declined from 57.5 percent in 1981 to 48.7 percent in 1988. This 8.8 percentage point decline in middle class tax burden is entirely accounted for by the increase borne by the top one percent."

[PCPrincess]

10:20 AM on 08/13/2011

Try reading the Declaration of Human Rights. I see one thing that stares out at me from your post. 'I'. 'I' am coming into a million dollars. About to come into? As you worked your butt off for it? Doubtful. If you weren't about to 'come' into a million dollars and had to rely on S.S., you'd be the first screaming about it being taken away if it was cut. Admit it. The only thing you actually care about is what affects you. How are you any more special or different than any other American born on this soil that has the same needs wants and dreams as you? Hmmm?

[wangfeihong]

10:33 PM on 08/10/2011

They should be investigated

[oldnassau67]

08:19 PM on 08/10/2011

Last I heard, Congress was elected by the same people who are now complaining. Everyone wants a quick fix - as long as it doesn't affect him.
Last I heard, no one is forced to buy stocks. Don't like Wall Street: Don't travel on it..

[mom2luke]

11:12 PM on 08/10/2011

well, there is the retirement 401k that we little ppl don't have too much control over but are going to need for retirement ...all going to wall st. barrons and down the tubes...

[Brian Novotny]

07:36 PM on 08/10/2011

Wall Street, DC, same difference, we all know, or most of us know who pulls most of the strings anyways, bravo to the stunt puller

[OhManOhMan]

07:34 PM on 08/10/2011

Fire those congress first then wall street crooks

[Arcelio Martinez]

05:05 PM on 08/10/2011

yup !!

[realitybaby]

03:27 PM on 08/10/2011

AHH those words belong in DC.

[Ayngel Overson]

03:06 PM on 08/10/2011

And to think... these people will get a salary and health care for life for what they've done to our country. Providing there is still a country left when they are done with it.

[JaxArab]

03:44 PM on 08/10/2011

I just don't get this salary and benefits for life for those politicians ? even if you are fired I heard you are still entitled, do you know of any other job that entitles you to benefits and pension for life even if you are fired ? unbelievable..

[Ayngel Overson]

03:52 PM on 08/10/2011

The only job I know of where you can work four years get run out with an approval rating in the negative and still get retirement and bennies for life.

THAT should have bee the first cut on the block.

[ballsafire]

08:12 AM on 08/11/2011

Nonsense. Members of Congress are eligible for a pension at age 62 if they have completed at least five years of service. They are eligible for a pension at age 50 if they have completed 20 years of service, or at any age after completing 25 years of service. Members elected since 1984 are covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). Like other federal employees, congressio­nal retirement is funded through taxes and participan­ts' contributi­ons. Members of Congress under FERS contribute 1.3% of their salary into the FERS retirement plan and pay 6.2% of their salary in Social Security taxes. And like Federal employees, members contribute one-third of the cost of health insurance with the government covering the other two-thirds­.

[JaxArab]

03:03 PM on 08/10/2011

Wrong address for that banner, is that class warfare thing working so goo now ?