Recent content by endsongs

I'm talking about what is ongoing now, not something 6 or 7 years ago. Obviously, they learned their lesson and now they rate more aggressively. Also, answer my question, who would you choose to rate a potential investment today: S&P or a more lenient rating agency?

It seems possible that you might be implying that S&P should adjust their actual ratings in order to help their business. That view is sort of off base. Let's put it another way: If you had to make an investment, which rating agency would you trust - S&P, which has the strictest methodology...

It's called being ahead of the curve. In 2013, when the debt ceiling issue resurfaces, the debt will be over $17Trillion instead of the ~$14.5T now. Keep in mind that ~10% of our economy is Federal gov't budget deficit. Any tax increases or spending cuts to lower the deficit will also lower...

To say S&P caused people to lose money is somewhat suspect. SPY was over $127 per share when Clinton left office. As you know, SPY is ~ $115 today. I doubt the fact that SPY has lost ~10% of it's value since Clinton left office ~10.5 years ago is due to the S&P downgrade a few weeks ago.

Look like he is taking the Jimmy Carter route: do what is right but accept punishment for it.

The problem with term limits is they also remove the good politicians from office. My feeling is if the budget is balanced and the unemployment rate is below 6%, those politicians should be able to stay in office because they are performing. If there is a budget deficit and the unemployment...

Well, there has been some not positive news regarding this Rossi invention. See the link below. http://pesn.com/2011/08/08/9501889_Defkalion_Responds_Ignores_Rossis_Accusation/ Seems like the agreement was terminated between Rossi and the company that was supposed to participate in the...

After dropping the ball during the subprime crisis, S&P is downgrading every risky asset in sight, it seems. You wonder how much longer it will be before Fitch and Moodys get with the program...

http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/ratings/current.asp From the above link, which might be outdated, only 9 states had AAA ratings. I saw another article which said only 4 states would be subject to possible downgrade from AAA if the debt ceiling failed to pass. So, it would seem that states can...

Sorry but not accurate. The actual deficit for 2007 was $500B and for 2006 ~$600B. Bush kept almost all of his deficits "off budget" so the reported defict was only around 1/3 or so of the actual deficit. See below. http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm

We need to stop using stimulus (spending and tax cuts paid for with debt) to try to jumpstart the economy every time there is a recession or a negative turn in the business cycle. These negative events are natural and serve an important purpose: weed out companies and businesses that are weak...

Hey Random. My thoughts exactly. In fact, here is a link to what Carter tried to do with the dept. of Energy. http://www.energybulletin.net/node/9657

Carter's policies had nothing to do with the economic issues you cite. The price of energy's rise was not his fault. Nothing short of starting a war for no reason in the Middle East, to force prices down, could have stopped that. In the case of Carter, he wanted more out of the depts of...

Yes, the country was in a slight recession with a downturn in the business cycle when Carter left office. However, reessions and downturns always happen, and, obviously, still happen to this very day. The key is to ride them out and not damage this country's long term future by running up debt...