Who To Blame For The US Debt Downgrade?

Discussion in 'Politics' started by tradingjournals, Aug 6, 2011.

Who is to blame for the US Debt Downgrade?

  1. Ben Bernanke

    1 vote(s)
    7.1%
  2. Republicans in latest deal

    8 vote(s)
    57.1%
  3. Those responsible of W.'s policies

    2 vote(s)
    14.3%
  4. None of the above, but I love TJ's thread

    3 vote(s)
    21.4%
  1. Trying to debate/communicate through a message board is not without it's challenges.:D I'd guess most of us have similar goals with some wanting to go down a different path to get there. Guess that's what makes life interesting. Wouldn't be much fun if we all agreed all the time, and more importantly, we wouldn't learn anything either.
     
    #31     Aug 7, 2011
  2. #32     Aug 7, 2011
  3. DT-waw

    DT-waw


    you still don't get it and probably never will.
    the problem is not with material things you have around. you've plenty, i agree. the source of usa misery is the debt. next generations will suffer because of it. huge, massive debt.
    pensioners will receive very little in the near future.

    the other thing is that most americans are obese. brains and the whole organism poisoned by HFCS, aspartame, sugar and whole range of hormone disruptors
     
    #33     Aug 7, 2011
  4. DT-waw

    DT-waw

    obese people can work as TSA agents, prison guards and the like.
    no creative or productive jobs.

    thats why the government had to create so many jobs which don't require much thinking in the USA. without these gov. agencies and the prison industry, the unemployment would be 3x higher.

    plus obese people are fooled into taking medical pills, which make their health even worse. this leads to being even less productive.

    and all that leads to more U.S. debt.
     
    #34     Aug 7, 2011
  5. Lucrum

    Lucrum

    And I'll bet you saw Elvis in a UFO too huh?
     
    #35     Aug 7, 2011
  6. bone

    bone

    The number of thread posts from different members proclaiming TradingJournal's idiocy and bias actually wins the polling from a numbers standpoint.
     
    #36     Aug 7, 2011
  7. Lucrum

    Lucrum

    You noticed that too huh?


    :)
     
    #37     Aug 7, 2011
  8. lindiA

    lindiA

    Thanks for the info! I was gathering much resources as i can about this topic and i happen to come across your page.

    I was browsing through some sites and I've read the latest about the debt downgrade. Apparently, the credit rating bureau Standard & Poor's (S&P) made an unparalleled decision on Friday to lower the country's once-impeccable AAA rating down to AA. The industry is being guided by an experiencing of unease and uncertainty, and the American consumer may soon be feeling it as well. Some say the downgrade won't have enduring outcomes, but others disagree.

    Article Source: <a title="Uncertainty about how debt downgrade will affect U.S." href="http://personalmoneynetwork.com/moneyblog/2011/08/08/sp-downgrade-effecs/">Uncertainty about how debt downgrade will affect U.S.</a>

    This is not good. Last week I've read about the credit rebates and now this?! Unbelievable! When is this economic turmoil ever going to cease? Everyday is always a battle in our economy. I think that the government is making matters much worse than it already is.
     
    #38     Aug 10, 2011
  9. Ricter

    Ricter

    Happy Anniversary. (Brackets are links in source.)


    Aug 5, 2012 - Mike Konczal

    " [A Year After S&P's Rating Downgrade, US Treasuries Trade 1% Lower, by Mike Konczal:]
    On August 5th, 2011, one year ago today, S&P downgraded the United States from AAA to AA+. This was four days after Congress voted to raise the debt ceiling. S&P did this because they didn't like the politics of the debt ceiling, implicitly blaming the Republicans' aggressive threat of a default on the national debt to obtain their political goals. "The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed." And they did this because they wanted to nudge Congress to make big, Grand Bargain type changes. S&P was worried that, in the aftermath of the debt ceiling agreement, "new revenues have dropped down on the menu of policy options" and "only minor policy changes on Medicare and little change in other entitlements" would potentially be achieved in the near future.

    " Analysts at Treasury quickly noted, after reviewing the numbers, that S&P made a $2 trillion dollar mistake, which dramatically overstated the medium-term debt levels of the United States that were their economic justification. S&P stood by their downgrade while admitting the error.

    " The United States losing its AAA rating was a political shock. The verdict was quick from the center and the right - this would be incredibly harmful to the United States' ability to deal with its national debt. When S&P first brought up the possibility of the downgrade in July, the centrist think tank Third Way highlighted that "S&P estimates that a downgrade would increase the interest rates on U.S. treasuries by 50-basis points," and urged "Congress and the Administration [to] come together and pass a 'grand bargain' that will put us on a sustainable path and avoid a credit downgrade." ...

    " Did the downgrade increase interest rates on U.S. Treasuries 50-basis points? ... Here's [FRED data on Treasury 10 years:]... They are down a little over 1 full percentage point, from 2.58 percent to 1.51 percent. If you want to consider the baseline the 3 percent interest rates from right before the downgrade, or the 2 percent interest rates that happened afterwards, then rates are down either 1.5 or 0.5 percentage points. That's a major decline in the borrowing cost of the United States. One can't find the increase in rates in this market. Counterfactuals are difficult - perhaps S&P is correct, and 10-year Treasuries would be closer to 1 percent had there been no downgrade.

    " But that seems unlikely. ... A year later the downgrade appeared to have been irrelevant to United States' borrowing costs. To the extent that they were relevant they signaled and reinforced a further move away from potential stimulus for the economy, which collapsed demand and drove even more money into government bonds and the interest rate down to 2 percent almost right away. But either way, low interest rates on US debt continues their downward march. Contrary to S&P, the financial markets are calling for a larger deficit, not a smaller one."

    http://www.nextnewdeal.net/rortybomb/year-after-sps-rating-downgrade-us-treasuries-trade-1-lower
     
    #39     Aug 5, 2012
  10. What a dipshit , no mention of a european crisis creating a flight to quality.

    No other country can absorb the sheer magnitude of the money involved.
     
    #40     Aug 5, 2012