Urgent: Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s on Friday downgraded the United States’ credit rating for the first time in the history of the ratings.The credit rating agency said that it is cutting America’s top AAA rating by one notch to AA-plus. The credit agency said that it is making the move because the deficit reduction plan passed by Congress on Tuesday did not go far enough to stabilize the country’s debt situation.
via S&P Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating From AAA . That economic genius? TurboTax Timmy said it would never happen.
Lovin it PssttCmere.
Advertisement
August 5, 2011 at 8:43 pm
They wond, MvcN. We lost.
2012 is nonsense.Thinking we’ll get rid of .that bastard is laughable. Soros and co. have it all set up.
August 5, 2011 at 8:46 pm
Make that:
Thy won, McN. We lost.
William Ayres must be dancing in the streets.
August 6, 2011 at 11:56 am
No, not yet. Remember the Alamo!!! NEVER give up!
August 6, 2011 at 12:35 pm
AMEN!
Remember the Alamo! We have just began to fight!
August 6, 2011 at 8:21 am
Excellent video, McN
I disagree that Obama won this
S&P said that the “Grand Bargain” would have stabilized the economy (not that I believe them – I think they need a recession and are gong to have one come hell or high water)
Back to the Grand Bargain – it was almost signed, sealed and delivered, then Obama moved the goalposts and asked for half again as much as the original agreement.
That is not going to be un-noticed, and you can bet your bottom dollar (now worth approx $0.48) that that point will be hammered home by every other candidate, operative, 527 ad, and more (including me)
August 6, 2011 at 11:58 am
Yes, I liked the video too. Too bad most of the younger population doesn’t realize that it’s about them.
Double dip recession. You’re right.
August 6, 2011 at 12:39 pm
Thanks, Anthony, for the info.
RE: “S&P said that the “Grand Bargain” would have stabilized the economy..”
I think S&P may have had this all planned ahead of time – for weeks and weeks.
There is some good out of this – if citizens and the new politicians will use it mercilessly. If spending stayed the same – excluding interest expense – out total debt goes up faster.
The higher interest rates mean we now have a STRONGER reason to cut spending more and faster than before.
August 6, 2011 at 1:16 pm
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/will-sp-downgrade-be-another-y2k-scare.html
Even if one is not into economics which admittedly has some pretty heavy terminology, one ought to read this whole article, excerpted following (article also also details grounds for the possible prosecution of the ratings agencies themselves):
“So why didn’t investors dump Treasuries with this threat hanging over the market’s head? Maybe investors have wised up and realize the ratings are worthless (more on that shortly). Here is a partial list of reasons:
Investors that are required to hold AAA paper can continue to rely on the AAA ratings from Moody’s and Fitch. Two ratings will suffice for virtually all users (and there were media reports of various regulated investors seeking opinions and getting waivers if they thought they might need them). In case there were any doubts, the Fed, Treasury, FDIC, NCUA and OCC told S&P to go to hell and issued a press release saying that the entities they regulated to carry on as before. Bloomberg, which provided a comparatively sanguine account, noted:
“Yields are low in the face of a downgrade because there is nowhere else for people to go if they don’t buy Treasuries because they want to be in safe dollar assets,” Carl Lantz, head of interest-rate strategy at Credit Suisse Group AG, one of 20 primary dealers that trade directly with the Fed, said before the announcement.
Investors may not be thrilled with the dollar, but the Eurozone is facing existential stresses, the yen and Swiss franc are in nosebleed territory, the yuan has capital controls (the Chinese do not want inflation stoking hot money inflows right now, thank you very much) and major investors see most minor currencies as speculative plays rather than stores of value. The greenback still fares pretty well in the beauty contest among Cinderella’s ugly sisters.
Finally, in a lot of markets, like repo (which serves as collateral for derivatives positions) there aren’t good alternatives to Treasuries.”
One might add: if the banksterists hadn’t wanted this downgrade it would not have happened; it is going to be made to serve their interests.
August 6, 2011 at 1:25 pm
S & P was slow in coming to this. It’s not the downgrade that peeves me, it’s that outlook which we have all seen coming. The admission is what pisses me off to no end.
August 6, 2011 at 4:41 pm
It’s the timing for me!
Oh so political I think.
August 6, 2011 at 4:51 pm
I don’t say our nation is AAA credit worthy however S&P are part of the problem; they also need to go as they have shown they cannot be trusted to do a fair evaluation.
It is also not merely our nation that is underwater: one look at this map and you will see that the US and all its allies are in debt. Such a surprise the coalition of the killing are the most in the red. http://www.economist.com/content/global_debt_clock
I am a damn sight more than peeved that I am being forced to cover these banksterists bad debts. Fuck that!
These pos print up monopoly money that they can spend like real currency, and when their scams catch up they shift the burden in real currency to us. They ought to fry for it.
Heh, today is the anniversary of the first use of the electric chair that would be so much more humane than hanging. That’s what we need now, an upgrade in the humaneness of lethal injection. Just sayin.
August 7, 2011 at 8:51 am
Only you would come up with this. LOL
August 6, 2011 at 11:07 pm
I agree with you here. S&P was giving 5 star ratings to companies while they were trading the disastrous mortgage backed securities. Sure, they got it right this time, but then they were partly responsible.
August 6, 2011 at 9:45 am
I’m hearing a lot of rumblings coming from the Dems about a Democrat challenger in the race for 2012, which must be scaring the crap out of Obama…and we know how full of crap that man is!
Well, didn’t DWS say that Obama “owned” this economy and would run on its strength? Let’s hold her to her word, as ridiculous as it is.
It also looks like the unions are beginning to turn on him…which would be another reason for the Dems to scramble for a challenger against Obama. The unions are the one’s steering the Dem party, and they don’t seem too happy with “The One”.
August 6, 2011 at 11:59 am
They can’t get back those bitter clingers that they don’t need Nunly. Remember when Brazille said that? They don’t need us. As for Barack, he will go back on his owning of anything. It’s always someone else’s fault.
August 6, 2011 at 12:42 pm
Right McN.
I’m not going to vote Dem again in the General Elections until the criminal Dem Party has been suitably punished for their 2008 evil.
Dem Party extinction would make a just punishment for them – just like the Round Heads, and Whigs.
August 6, 2011 at 2:05 pm
I’m with you on that, Buttered. The Democratic party is not what I thought it was…not sure if I was just blind or if it changed that drastically since the last Prez. election. All I know is that I will not vote for any Democrat in the next election…no matter who wins the Primary in the Republican party.
August 6, 2011 at 4:56 pm
I am glad to have voted 3rd party in the last general election (also previously a lifelong dem): I am done with both the democrats and the republicans. No more lesser of 2 evils here, it’s just a great way to ensure you get evil every stinking time.
August 6, 2011 at 11:48 am
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b23sZTQySBA/Ti….ck+look+big.jpg
August 6, 2011 at 11:50 am
Lets try this again….
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b23sZTQySBA/Ti8qBB9Kt7I/AAAAAAAAA1s/cNDH0O2uSkk/s1600/ass+make+truck+look+big.jpg
August 6, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Excellent PssttCmere. Looks like one of my neighbors. hahahahaha
August 6, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Now that’s funny!
August 6, 2011 at 11:58 am
S&P helped by its lying ratings to keep the banksterists ponzi scheme afloat and are directly responsible for SIG-TARP at the very very least. They are certainly no one to listen to. All ratings companies assuredly have their own agenda directed at their own enrichment and anything they say ought always to be parsed as having come through this filter.
Anyone with a brain ought to be demanding an end to this securitizing shit: all of it needs to stop now; & no derivative speculation; also banks must have the actual reserves to lend: no more of this (actually less than)10% shit; minimally they should be required to keep at least 20% for checking and savings both. Period.
All this talk of primarying BHO is propaganda to diminish demand for a third party challenger. People need to stfu about primarying the pos and come up with a real alternative than these 2 wings of worthless plutocrat shills.
BHO’s chiefest backers were and are the same Wall Street banksterists and energy oligarchs that have in recent history paid for repubs to front them; it was obvious Dick Cheney wasn’t going to fly as a presidential candidate, so they picked last go around from the other wing.
Union leaders are not steering the dem party. Those union leaders that are corrupt (a majority, sadly) are bought and paid for shills of the very industries for which they once unionized to fight. But they are still just middlemen, the same as the “elected” officials.
Likewise it is useless to say BHO did anything, because BHO is not in charge either. All of these are all just go betweens for the plutocrats (except in the few but scarily growing cases where the congresstools are themselves plutocrats).
Oligarchs are not dems and they are not repubs, they are equal opportunity tool users. If another party gains ascendancy they will do their best to corrupt it as well. Look at the libertarians in 2008 with Bob Barr (neocon) &his vp Wayne Root (neonazi) & the constitution party with Chuck Baldwin (neocon). The only reason that the greens and socialists were not co-opted is it wasn’t worth the money. But when and if it gets to be worth the money, the plutocrats will make a move to purchase them too.
August 6, 2011 at 12:11 pm
We are heading for higher interest rates, that is a given. We are leaderless Nom. That is for sure. I have spoken to hard core Republicans and they are not happy with their pickings either. I do believe that Barack needs to go now because I, like many others suspect that he will continue to screw this country by executive order before he walks out the door. I hope like Hell that insiders are kicking the community organizer in chief by the balls. Sadly, the decay that we are witnessing is unfolding at a quickened pace. I’m not sure that kicking him will do anything more than waking that man up to what he has allowed to happen.
I worry about the what the unions will do next year. They have been emboldened by this administration in particular. They could possibly bring this country to a standstill. I do believe that they will certainly try. It’s now up to the individual to decide which way to walk. I am hearing rumblings about how the military industrial complex is taking this as well as others. Everyone wants their pie, and no one wants to give up anything. Months ago people were talking about the direction that this would take regardless of whether the ceiling was lifted or not. The middle class will disappear.
August 6, 2011 at 12:42 pm
Any attempt to fix the problem by a change in middleman is a waste of time: if you don’t eliminate the plutocrats nothing changes.
August 7, 2011 at 6:00 pm
“I’m not sure that kicking him will do anything more than waking that man up to what he has allowed to happen. “
So do you mean that Obama might not actually know what he has “allowed to happen”? Because if he doesn’t know it’s because he doesn’t care what’s happened. I don’t think he knows what he is doing and so he does what he is told … not giving a rat’s patootie just as long as he is POTUS and he gets to the golf course on time.
August 7, 2011 at 7:25 pm
They don’t give a rat’s rear and that is an understatement. They orbit in a parallel world. Listen to Greenspan…”no chance of default, we can always print more money” rant.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44051683
August 6, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Home after a long day’s work, and found the particulars from my earlier comment.
Here’s how the “Grand Bargain” went down:
•The White House agreed to a revenue total that would set a ceiling of about $800 billion in new revenue over ten years that could be generated through economic growth and efficiencies in our tax system (not tax hikes).
•After the ‘Gang of Six’ plan was released, and in the wake the reaction from Hill Democrats, they moved the goal posts and insisted on $400 billion more in higher taxes – a 50% increase – and wanted that to the floor instead of the ceiling.
•At the same time, they struck principles of tax reform that were already agreed to, including a protection against tax hikes on small businesses and a guarantee that there were would be only 3 tax rates and highest one would be below 35%
So, in the end, you see it was Obama who put the kabosh on this deal
August 6, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Violet (over at Reclusive Leftist) titled an article on this: “Obama refuses to approve short-term increase to debt ceiling, demands that he be allowed to cut Social Security and Medicare”
August 6, 2011 at 4:35 pm
It’s time for Barack to go. Pitchforks ready!
August 6, 2011 at 4:37 pm
http://www.strike-the-root.com/4/hambidge/hambidge2.html
An oldie but a goodie
August 6, 2011 at 6:12 pm
And I’ve got the song for him as he does the perv walk out of DC!
August 6, 2011 at 6:43 pm
Totally OT: fucker is going down! jmo no way he will not spend rest of life behind bars after this
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2022139/Warren-Jeffs-trial-Heavy-breathing-sex-tape-3-wives-including-bride-12.html#ixzz1UCbYy9mc
August 7, 2011 at 8:50 am
I see this guy going the way of Dahmer.
August 7, 2011 at 12:31 pm
I really hope so.
August 9, 2011 at 3:24 pm
woot, life it is: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/09/texas-polygamist-sentenced-to-life-in-prison/
halfway home, fucker
August 6, 2011 at 8:48 pm
Hey, isn’t it about time Obummer visited that 58th state – permanently?
Obama Claims He’s Visited 57 States
August 7, 2011 at 8:52 am
YES! I will pay for the ticket too.
August 7, 2011 at 12:30 pm
crap not only will I donat,e I will organize volunteers to build a large fence around it replete with concertina wire and big dogs.
August 7, 2011 at 12:35 pm
I suspect we will get a lot of offers to help out Nom.
August 6, 2011 at 11:09 pm
Hey, that really does make his truck look bigger.
August 7, 2011 at 8:44 am
I agree.