Yesterday, Turkish President Recep Erdoğan, continued his war of words with the Big Three credit rating agencies, asking for the justification for their recent downgrade of Turkish debt – ultimately stating that ‘the constitutional referendum in Turkey is none of your business. Who are you?’; this was in relation to Fitch Rating’s announcement that downgrading Turkey’s credit rating to BB+ was because of recent political and security events in Turkey which have ‘ undermined economic performance and institutional independence ’. In this post, there will be two questions asked: firstly, is President Erdoğan right to attack the rating agencies for such assessments, and secondly whether the issue of private entities having such an influence over the direction of a given society is something that should be promoted or rallied against? The balance between providing information for investors on one hand, and becoming involved, and in effect dictating the fortunes of a sovereign state is o...