On Jan. 20, 2009, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said that it lowered its ratings, including the corporate credit rating on Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool Corp., to 'BBB-' from 'BBB'. At the same time, we lowered the company's short-term corporate credit and commercial paper ratings to 'A-3' from 'A-2'. In addition, we removed all of the company ratings from CreditWatch, where we had placed them with negative implications on Oct. 29, 2008, reflecting Whirlpool's significant decline in operating income in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2008, and its corresponding downward revisions in earnings and cash flow guidance for fiscal 2008. The outlook is stable. As of Sept. 30, 2008, Whirlpool had about $3 billion in reported debt. The downgrade
