Triple A

You have probably read about the downgrading of the US credit rating by S&P late (last) Friday night (news). The SF Gate duly notes that:

Standard & Poor’s historic downgrade of the U.S. credit rating caused the capital to erupt Saturday in the exact partisan clashes that S&P had said led to its decision in the first place.

China, yesterday, lashed out at the US’s ‘addiction to debt’ (via The Telegraph):

The US government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone

Surprisingly, as the world’s largest producer of goods, China’s own credit rating is ‘A+’ (per 2008), which is lower than the US’s (a quick view PDF).

While some of the media predict that the markets are going down crashing this Monday, Internet experts and commentators are mixed about the actual meaning of this downgrade. At Metafilter (discussion) the general consensus is that this is a plain and simple politics game by the S&P with the goal of shirking responsibility for the mortgage crisis 3 years or so ago. Interesting point of view: however, there’s no doubt that Republicans are trying to tie this rating to the Obama presidency (via Reddit), which brings this posting a bit full circle as the Republicans deserve as much blame on the US’s debt issues. The Bush tax cuts for the rich (2 trillion). Two wars financed on what exactly (1 trillion). The mortgage crash and the super bailouts that happened before Obama’s presidency started.

In politics, the golden rule is to stick the negative news to the incumbents: in that light, 2012 is going to be an interesting election year for the US.

Updates: Reddit discussion about the mainstream media (supposedly) ignoring that S&P is blaming the Republicans for the downgrade.

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