Last week this is what a gleeful John Boehner had to say about the GOP having their ransom demands met on the debt deal:
When you look at this final agreement that we came to with the White House, I got 98 percent of what I wanted. I’m pretty happy.
And tonight, for the first time in this country’s history, “S&P cut the long-term U.S. credit rating by one notch to AA-plus,” because:
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. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy … It appears that for now, new revenues have dropped down on the menu of policy options.
Congratulations, Mr. Speaker.
Think S&P got it right?
They should just have not increased the debt ceiling. Then the government cannot borrow any more money and must only spend money it has, forever. S&P would not downgrade under such a scenario. It would have been tricky, but we were told we needed tax cheat Tim Geithner as head of Treasury because of his special skills.
Monday should be a very interesting day!
But… I blame ‘everybody’ in congress for the mess.
I also blame myself for voting some of them into office.
Thankfully, that is one mistake I can rectify in the next election.
Bless what ever is left of the US.
I have to laugh at all those who think the “dot com” boom was responsible for any increased tax revenues and the bust was responsible for Bush’s recession. The “dot com” era was really fairly small. Most of the “wealth” was phantom. When a company said their stock was worth $X billion, the stock markets believed them.
When the “dot com” went under, it was only those who had invested heavily that lost. Which were few.
The balanced Clinton budgets were written before the boom. Low unemployment preceded those budgets. But I guess the Tea Baggers forget the good times we had under Clinton. Because he was a Democrat, he is automatically to blame for everything.
#69, LL
The “stock market” is just another con game designed to relieve people from their money. It was during the Clinton Administration that the “stock market” had quit being an investment and became a short term profit center. I blame that on the glut of “MBAs” that started running the show.
The value of any stock has less to do with the company’s actual value and more to what the last dividend was. This value is manipulated every day by traders with little interest in the company. Long gone are the days when a company offered stock to raise money.
#83/#84, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Sounds to me like you are justifying tomorrow’s drop —
“A stock market crash doesn’t mean the economy is bad!”
Puh-leaze.
When stocks were going up because of perceived value, venture capitalist invested money in dot com start ups (and vice versa). That is where all the money was going. When the venture capital dried up because the investors were realizing there was really nothing there, companies running their operations on venture capital laid a bunch of people off. Laid off people don’t buy big screen TVs or new cars or any of that. If people aren’t buying cars, the stock goes down. If too much of that happens, the whole stock market goes down.
This is what happens when you skip breakfast. Please do us all a favor don’t do that again.
Now . . . as to your broad interpretation of the stock market, I agree to a certain point. But it wasn’t the influx of MBAs. It was the technology that allowed just about anybody with an internet connection to work at day trading.
#86, I guess you could really blame the dot com bubble on Gore. He invented that devil box known as the modem so people could form the Information Superhighway.
Does that make you happy? Gore is responsible for the dot com bust and Cheney is responsible for the housing bust.
Some people say that the Stock Market is a leading indicator (predicts future financial state of a company, and the country as a whole), and others say it is a trailing indicator (that it is reactive to news).
I say it is both, it leads when going up and trails when going down.
Buy on the rumor, sell on the news.
However know this, it is a zero sum game!
The market doesn’t generate wealth, it is a wealth transfer function. Money goes in, and money comes out, though who’s hands, the market doesn’t care.
As is typical on this site almost everyone blames either the Democrats or Republicans and the Obomba administration.
It’s all of the above. When will you people learn that we need to do something other than just bitch at each other.
#86, LL
#86, I guess you could really blame the dot com bubble on Gore. He invented that devil box known as the modem so people could form the Information Superhighway.
This is the typical line from the Tea Baggers and LIEBERTARIANS. They have no real comments so they resort to inventing their own facts.
#85,
#83/#84, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Sounds to me like you are justifying tomorrow’s drop —
“A stock market crash doesn’t mean the economy is bad!”
Puh-leaze.
See my comment about #86 above this.
…
When the venture capital dried up because the investors were realizing there was really nothing there, companies running their operations on venture capital laid a bunch of people off.
There were very few employees there to be laid off. A Walmart Supercenter has almost as many employees as were involved in the “dot com” boom. That was the selling point of e-trade, fewer employees. The “money” was the widely speculated value of the stock offered, not the actual value. A very similar speculative boom occurred almost 400 years ago with tulips from Holland.
It was very interesting being in NY right when the S&P announcement was made. What a hoot!
#74 And what a dull razor you are
#75 I think I’ll make due with that
. BTW, seems you got some free shrapnel.
#79 Uh oh. I see a seizure coming. I’m not responsible for Alfred E. Newman’s health.
#80 Not that I’m pro or against the teat party, but I understand you have such an opinion of it after reading #79.
#86 Didn’t he invented trading on the internet on those days? Yeah, he did so I also blame Gore for the dot bubble
#87 It depends on the limits of your bollinger bands.
#88 I guess it wouldn’t be as fun if both left & right wackos started seeing reality instead of their indoctrination.
Not only did S&P get it right – this weekend’s blather makes it clear that Republikans and Kool Aid Party brown shirts are working as hard as they can to guarantee the next downgrade. More from S&P and Moody’s probably to follow.
Yu can whine about your ideology all day; but, the markets worldwide will continue to react to the uselessness of Congress and Hoover/Reagan economics.
#91 Now I get it. You only have half a brain covered in moss.
Maybe if you ingest some weed killer and a god anti-fungal medicine you’ll finally be able to see the whole picture.
For the time being, that kool-aid you’re drinking is making the moss grow on your head.
#89, They have no real comments so they resort to inventing their own facts.
I guess you can’t see humor when you read it . . .
There were very few employees there to be laid off.
MF, you really need to do some research before you start spreading rumors:
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000
BTW . . . Please tell us why you would let a bunch of kids burn to death so you could save your wife?
>The balanced Clinton budgets were written before the boom.
Yes and no. The balanced budget was passed before, but like now, they spent more than was budgeted, and the balance happened because of the boom.
Too bad the S&P did feel the need to apply its credit-worthy microscope to all those subprime mortgages and default swap bloated banks, back in 2008. Oh no! Every damn thing was peachy keen, AAA+, with them. Until the bottom fell out. Now the S&P is down grading every country with debt, accept China, I’ll bet. Oh and never Switzerland!
You can bet that Boehner won’t accept 98% of the blame for ruining the US economy. It’s all Obama’s fault, for caving in to his demands. Oh the irony.