Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Future Headline: Who Lost America's AAA Credit Rating?

Mohamed El-Erian of Pimco says if the U.S. defaults the headlines will be: Who lost the US's AAA credit rating? WATCH. Lawmakers are taking the tack of questioning the rating agencies.
European markets are falling amid Congress's inability to compromise. Today, Mitch McConnell said Obama won't support Boehner's plan because Obama's concerned about re-election.
But no one likes Boehner's plan. The CBO nixed it and the tea party nixed it (they want deeper cuts) and the House and Senate democrats nixed it, so it would seem that McConnell has better things to do than to stand on the floor and whine. But that's not the case because we all know that McConnell's motive is to oust Obama. The sad part about this situation is there doesn't seem to be any light. It's gone too far and egos have gotten in the way of a compromise.
It’s not the default that strikes the most fear in the White House and Congress these days. It’s the downgrade.

Even Republican leaders say the country can’t go into default, and they’ll do everything possible to raise the debt limit by Aug. 2.

But what really haunts the administration is the very real prospect, stoked two weeks ago by Standard & Poor’s, that Barack Obama could go down in history as the president who presided over his country’s loss of its gold-plated, triple-A bond rating.

Obama could win and lose at the same time, striking a deal to avoid default but failing to pass muster on the substance of that deal with credit agencies, which could go ahead and downgrade the rating anyway. Read the rest at Politico
If you don't think this effects you, think again:
Financial analysts say such a move would hit Americans with more than $100 billion a year in higher borrowing costs, but it’s not just that. It would be a psychic blow to a nation that already looks over its shoulder at rising economic powers like China and wonders, what’s gone wrong? And it would give the president’s Republican rivals a ready-made line of attack that he’s dragging the country in the wrong direction. Politico