Global drops its Standard & Poor's rating

Global Investment House, the Kuwaiti investment firm that lost over $1bn in the fourth quarter of last year, decided yesterday to stop paying S&P to rate it. Not too surprising, in a way, given that Global bore the agency's lowest-possible mark. S&P had lowered Global's short- and long-term counterparty risk ratings from SD (i.e. selective default, meaning some of its loans were in arrears) to D (full default, meaning it was defaulting on lots of loans). Global now "will be subject to no further surveillance." Sounds like a reprieve in a KGB memo, but you get the drift. Release after the jump.