S&P Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating From AAA

[SWMO]

Still struggling along.  It has definately changed the landscape for the rest of our lifetime.  It is hard to replace trees very quickly and the rebuilding will take years.  I suspect that it will take St Johns hospital three years to get a new facility up and running.  Facilities of that size dont get built overnight. The last measurable rainfall that we had was during that week of the Tornado.

The rain that we have gotten over the past couple of days along with temps in the 90s have certainly improved the general mood of the farming community around here.  There is still hope for some of he late planted beans although the corn is a write off.  Hopefully the grass will start to green back up.  Alot of folks were starting to feed hay (us included).  Praying for good fall rains to grow some grass back before winter.

It has been a long hot miserable summer around here that started this winter with record snow.  We feel the pain of those folks in Texas although our dry spell hasnt lasted nearly as long as theirs has.

 

[Okotoks]

What I didn't realize until today was the 2 trillion in reduced spending they agreed to was an increase of 7 trillion instead of 9 trillion ??? That's right they agreed to reduce the increase not to a decrease in spending.
Canada had our rating reduced in the early 90's. We got out of it by holding any spending increase to 1% or less than inflation. Again not really a cut in spending.There is huge amounts of waste in government, there has to be a way to actually reduce spending.

The following is an excerpt from this CBC article  http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2011/08/08/credit-ratings-comeback-kids.html
(I actually think the USA could do it better than we did with some resolve)
"The two other principal ratings agencies, Moody's and Fitch, kept the U.S. at the triple-A grade but warned its continued rising debt level was not consistent with holding the top ranking. Moody's also issued a "negative" outlook on the U.S.

Canada, Australia and Sweden have suffered similar downgrades and recovered to reclaim the coveted triple-A rating, but not without steering through some tough years and making equally tough decisions on spending.

The countries join Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Kingdom as the world's major triple-A nations.

Other countries, such as Iceland and Ireland, saw their triple-A ratings evaporate as their economies suffered near-death blows during the 2008 financial crisis and show no signs of returning to top-tier status soon, if ever.

TD's Alexander acknowledges the U.S. government has some big problems, but if it buckles down, gets its economic and political houses in order, it faces little risk of an economic relapse or a further decline in its credit rating."

 

[nate53]

[For those that think that we aren't still in a recession and that this isn't the double dip that economist have worried about, you must not be in the retail world!  For a variety of reason July was one of the worst months that I have ever had.  I attribute this to several factors, THE EXTREME HEAT, our government waiting until the last minute to vote on the debt ceiling and locally the F5 tornado.

[quote author nate53 What part of the retail world are you in?  The whole area of Joplin as well as several other areas in several other southern states were hit really hard, things will never be the same in those areas.  Whole towns and a lot of people were lost just like in Joplin, it sounds like you know this first hand.  I guess my point is, its not really a fair comparison, if you compare these communities economies to the rest of the country.  JMO 

It seems like every where on the news someone is talking about a possibility of another recession or double dip, it seems like if enough people see something or hear something enough that they start believing it wether its true or not (global warming).  It seems like this negative media attention affects the economy more than actual facts or events.  I'm not saying the economy is good right now, but boy there is a long way to the bottom yet, and hopefully we don't even come close to that.
Thanks for your update on the Joplin area.     

 

[SWMO]

Actually parts of our economy are booming because of the May tornado.  Construction will be very good for A LONG TIME in the Joplin area.

What I am saying is have you changed your spending habits over the past several years?  Many people have.  Some because they just don't have the money to spend due to job loss or others because they are trying to pay down debt and not incur any new debt delaying any discretionary spending.  People have money they are just choosing to not spend it rather they are paying down debt (which I am in favor of) or hanging on to it.

I also still believe, corporations will not be spending any substantial money in the USA until the government reduces the corporate tax rate.  That being a huge obstacle for any growth in the job market.  JMO

 

[nate53]

Yes I have changed spending habits over the past several years, but mainly to decrease personal debt, not buying as much stuff that I don't really need, and to invest in the farm more.  My reasons for this are the anticipation of harder times, not saying they are likely, just would like to be as prepared as I can be.  Interest rates are an area of concern for me, they are good now though.

 

[nate53]

http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/09/7321296-was-sp-downgrade-an-act-of-revenge

 

[KSanburg]

Our government has to be held responsible for this mess, while this issue started while Bush was in office Obama has not done anything to curtail the problem and in fact has increased the deficit by an exponential amount. And all he can come up with is to raise taxes, which have never worked, and the tax cuts need to flow over to the corporate holding so they will spend money and create new jobs. I know that if they raise my taxes I will want to make less simply because I do not want to give the government any more than I already do. The simplest fix for this mess is to clean up our outstanding mess and go to a fair tax and we would be back in the driver’s seat.  Besides that would give us a big jump start on reducing our spending just by getting rid of those 150,000 IRS agents.

On another thought Texas needs to start blaming Obama for the drought now that he has his finger on the weather machine, I mean after all they blamed Bush for Katrina. You know they want to get rid of all the cattle in Texas and reduce the carbon foot print from the methane gasses the cows produce.