Standard & Poor’s Puts 'Negative' Outlook on U.S. Rating

[JohnBrowdie]

and in a related story, eric holder has announced a DoJ investigation into foreign influence at standard & poors, as well as possible criminal conduct by several of the senior members of management.*

*_{don't laugh.  it almost happened at the chamber of commerce.}

Standard & Poor’s Puts ‘Negative’ Outlook on U.S. Rating

April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Standard & Poor’s put the U.S. government on notice that it risks losing its AAA credit rating unless policy makers agree on a plan by 2013 to reduce budget deficits and the national debt.

“If an agreement is not reached and meaningful implementation does not begin by then, this would in our view render the U.S. fiscal profile meaningfully weaker than that of peer ‘AAA’ sovereigns,” New York-based S&P said today in a report that maintained its top rating on U.S. long-term debt while lowering the outlook to “negative” for the first time.

S&P said there’s a one-in-three chance that the rating might be cut within two years and that its “baseline assumption” is that Congress and the Obama administration will come to terms on a plan to reduce record deficits. Treasuries and the dollar rebounded from early losses following the statement, while stocks declined. Moody’s Investor Service, which has a stable outlook on U.S. debt, today said the U.S. budget debate is “positive” for the country’s credit.

“For most investors there is nowhere else to put their money as the U.S. still has the strongest, deepest, most-liquid markets in the world,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. “There is no alternative.”

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[jafo2010]

Right this very moment, the top 25 or so folks at S & P are being identified so that the IRS can do a tax audit!  Good government in action!

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has said the U.S. shouldn’t be borrowing “from the Chinese” and other foreign investors to finance tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

Well, and the government of the USA should NOT BE SPENDING MONEY IT DOES NOT HAVE!

It is time to cut to avoid a major depression.  There is no spending your way out of this one, and there is no major war looming to save the day either as in WWII.  The simple fact is that the birth rate declined radically from 1965 to 1973 in the USA, and this single event will have a huge impact on what happens for the next ten years economically in the USA.

Most people will agree our economy is driven by the consumer.  Well, there will be for the next ten years a major decline in spending because we just do not have the purchasing power created by the Baby Boomers.  That party is over.

It is time we take drastic steps to preserve our country.  We cannot maintain this colonial variant we are doing across the world.  We simply cannot.  Who are we kidding here?  We will end up imploding just as the USSR did in 1991.  Our heads have gotten to big if we think otherwise.  The strength of this country in part is due to the strength of the US Dollar throughout the world.  If that disappears, our country collapses, and many countries are talking about moving away from the US Dollar as their reserve currency.

It is time the US government tightens its belt.  Obama is a total disgrace, and the Republican Party leadership need to communicate what must be done, and they need to take a leadership position.  Unfortunately, they have egg on their face with having to live with the history of having George Bush as part of their party.  He ruined for the Republican party their brand, their brand of a conservative party.  He spent more money than any president up to his day, only to be bested by the current interloper.

Harry Dent is talking about a major period of deflation, where the stock market will plummet to 3,300 DJIA, beginning next year.  Considering we only had three years in the 20th Century that were deflationary, this is very serious.  The fact that we have 2.5 TIMES as many people versus the 1930s make it all the more catastrophic if we do enter such a period.  I honestly see us ending  up with anarchy if we do go down that road.

Donald Trump is right about a number of things, and that being we here in the USA need to focus more on us, and not so much the rest of the world.  If we destroy our own country while nation building the world, what have we accomplished?

If he delivers that message to the people of the USA, and runs for president, he will win overwhelming support.  The people of the USA are tired of how our country has operated the last 20 years or so.  Citizens are second class here, with our borders an open sieve, spending on wars with NO OBJECTIVE.  These are not small wars either, for they are costing the American taxpayer a huge amount of money.

If we do not have a real leader to make the tough decisions here in the near future, this country is economically doomed.

What Standard & Poor did was right on the money, and is only the first step that could be taken that will help the self serving thieves of Washington get focused on doing their job.

I am certain that in less than one day I could balance the budget for the federal government.  Why is it these people we elect to office cannot find their way or understand the mission they signed on for?

I want leadership in Washington.  We just do not have that now with this president, or with this Congress either.  They have lost the meaning of what they are there to do.  If the interests of the American people do not come first with their actions, then something is wrong.  If foreign governments have a greater say on HOW we do what we do, then something is wrong. 

I AM SAYING SOMETHING IS TERRIBLY WRONG IN WASHINGTON!  Either they clean up their act, or I welcome someone that will do something radically different who has business sense......maybe someone like Trump is just what America needs.  He says he would tell OPEC a thing or two.....yeah right.....well I would like to see that.  Perhaps if he decides we will become dependent on only USA oil, that would be one way to let them know where they stand.  Does he have that kind of brass.....I hope someone does.

[Miss Mia]

Harry Dent? The guy that said the market was going to 30k? I'd take anything he says with a grain of salt.

[natstew]

 Tim Geithner, the tax cheat who should be in prison, is ordering an investigation of S&P because S&P made a statement that the Regime doesn't want the public to hear. The whole Obama REGIME is a criminal organization and should be indicted under the RICO law!

[jafo2010]

Ask anyone that is involved in the market, and see what they say about that Texas gumba you love so much!

Bush killed the stock market with almost everything he did.

[Miss Mia]

Ask anyone that is involved in the market, and see what they say about that Texas gumba you love so much!

Bush killed the stock market with almost everything he did.

I don't 'love' my governor and I'm frankly embarrassed that he was re-elected.

[JohnBrowdie]

I believe he was talking to me, and referring to GWB.  and I generally ignore non-responsive commentary.

[JohnBrowdie]

they lobbied privately, and then attacked them for rendering an independent, objective opinion. 

the irony is that the country is being divided up into little camps by the great uniter, healer, and unifier.

Report: White House Officials Lobbied to Keep US Credit Outlook Unchanged

White House officials privately urged Standard & Poor's to not lower its outlook on the nation's credit rating during the weeks leading up the agency's decision Monday to make the cut, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Treasury Department officials had been in talks with S&P about whether the agency should change its outlook on the US to "negative" from "stable," suggesting the nation could eventually be stripped of its valuable "AAA" rating due to growing federal debt levels.

According to the report, Treasury officials told S&P analysts that they were underestimating the ability of politicians in Washington to design and pass a deal to trim deficits.

But S&P analysts evaluating US debt levels responded by releasing a report that expressed skepticism that the political parties could get a deal done that would bring down spending.

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[jafo2010]

I applaud what S & P have done.  Believe me, that took real BRASS B*LLS.  And I am sure it was NOT done lightly.  Whatever action they took, know that it should have been done perhaps 2-3 years ago, and so they are reticent in doing what they did, but they did it!


THANK GOD!

It will take brave people like that to force the dirty rotten politicians to do their jobs properly...............MAYBE!

Watch for this government now doing everything they can to discredit the S & P.  I hope they withstand the onslaught, because that avalanche is now rolling!