(08-06-2011, 02:57 AM)DeeBye Wrote: S&P lowered the US credit rating. That sort of sucks for the US.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/0...VF20110806
edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cou...dit_rating
US treasuries are trading at record high prices, and yet we're going to believe S&P, the guys who (along with Moody's) just rated all those subprime-based bonds as AAA, right up until the day they were worthless?
Listen to the markets. Investors may have the memories of goldfish, but they're not stupid. People are not buying 30-year securities at 3.7 because they don't know security from a hole in the wall.
-Jester
(08-05-2011, 03:03 AM)kandrathe Wrote: So, really, we are just slowing the increase in spending and not really cutting back on spending.
*Total* government spending crashed during the crisis. The increase in federal spending ("stimulus") didn't even bring it back to previous levels. Government spending and revenue are down, not up, if you include local and state. That's contractionary - the "G" in Y = C+I+G+Nx does not discriminate.
-Jester