Mean old credit rating agency S&P put 15 European Union nations on a negative credit watch today, including once-safe countries like Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Also: Malta. What if Malta goes under? "Lehman Bros. on steroids," probably.

S&P is so slick! The credit-rating agency has comically put rival Moody's on its watch list for a downgrade, replete with a lecture about how reform legislation (that applies to both firms) will devastate Moody's, only. Oh, it's on now.

Al Franken's tough financial reform amendment regulating credit-rating agencies has been stripped in favor of something far more draconian: regulators will "study the issue and take action only if they think it is necessary." Brutal! Moody's must be terrified.