44 replies to this topic

[WharfRat]

http://www.politico....0811/60778.html

Fucking incompetent politicians unable to make compromises. (Though the whole issue is largely at heart due to the flawed nature of a two party government system...)

This could potentially have a huge impact on the U.S.

(Hadn't seen a topic on this yet, so I thought I'd create one. )

[semore]

Well they did come to an agreement and both sides made compromises (the left made more sacrifices imo). S&P just decided that the deal wasn't enough of a long term solution to the problem. But it only went from AAA to AA+, could have been much worse

[Rikku]

great.... just what we needed......

[Sage]

Oh no. Our financial situation is dire enough that our fantastic credit rating has been knocked down to slightly less fantastic.

[Waser Lave]

Look on the bright side, at least Canada is still AAA. Hell, even the UK is still AAA and our public finances are pretty much non-existent.

[ZKK]

Rating agencies are a joke. They are so full of shit.

[Jake]

im glad we got downgraded, it limits our ability to borrow $,yes interest rates are going to soar- dont buy what you cant afford. - dont over spend what you dont have. and you wont pay interest and nothing will effect you. If we stop borrowing money, we will cut spending and economy JUST may get back on track, we borrow .45c i think roughly of every $ spent by us government,

think of it that way, might be good.

False hopes. I don't want to downplay the effect of the credit downgrade, I'm not an economic expert but I can certainly guarantee that nothing good will come out of this. This will most likely have minimal effects on other countries, hopefully my own... the loonie took the largest dip in a while but we still stand above a weakened dollar. Your words are too optimistic however because the reality of the US not doing what you have said will be ever so slim.

[Shampoo]

Rating agencies are a joke. They are so full of shit.

so much this. let's not forget these are the same clowns who said subprime-backed securities were a safe bet

[necospes]

We need a new congress. Looks like I need to get off my lazy ass and vote.

[Shampoo]

We need a new congress. Looks like I need to get off my lazy ass and vote.

fuck that noise, just emigrate

[WharfRat]

The discussion in this thread turned out to be really disappointing... Oh well... what can you expect on a neopets related website, eh?

[Rikku]

The discussion in this thread turned out to be really disappointing... Oh well... what can you expect on a neopets related website, eh?

yeah.. I’d lower my expectations if I were you

emigrate from the best country in the world?!
FUCK THAT.

soulstealer can come to america and afew of you canadians and acouple of the england fellows. we are still the super power. dont care what anyone says

God I wish I could be that naive...

We’re on the verge of losing our standing as the world's largest economy and people are still going "ladida, everything is great!"

[Kyle]

Ron Paul can fix us. All I have to say.

[iargue]

The discussion in this thread turned out to be really disappointing... Oh well... what can you expect on a neopets related website, eh?

It has nothing to do with Neopets at all. It had to do with the fact that the discussion topic is just utterly stupid. Relying on the "rating" of a stupid group of people to judge how an entire country is doing is absolutely stupid. Just like relying on "stocks" to tell how a well a economy doing is just completely stupid.

My every day life has been effected in no way at all, so why should I care what some stupid company thinks? They mean nothing to me, nor will they mean anything to me.

yeah.. I’d lower my expectations if I were you



God I wish I could be that naive...

We’re on the verge of losing our standing as the world's largest economy and people are still going "ladida, everything is great!"

Who cares if we lose the standing. WE STILL WILL BE THE LARGEST ECONOMY. Its not like the economy will just die, because someone rated us at AA+ instead of AAA. We still have hundreds of multibillion dollar companies, and thousands of multimillion dollar companies, none of which are going to die any time soon.

[Sage]

The reason this discussion is disappointing is because there probably aren't very many finance or economics students or professionals in your audience. Neopets has nothing to do with it.

[Waser Lave]

Who cares if we lose the standing. WE STILL WILL BE THE LARGEST ECONOMY. Its not like the economy will just die, because someone rated us at AA+ instead of AAA. We still have hundreds of multibillion dollar companies, and thousands of multimillion dollar companies, none of which are going to die any time soon.

Of course it's not going to impact on people in two days...the impact it will have is for the ability of the US to get cheap(ish) credit on the world markets to be diminished so America will be paying more to service its debts and to borrow money too, somebody has to pay for that and while one person may not notice any chance in their lives somebody will be paying for it somewhere (probably through public service cuts since tax rises wouldn't be popular).

Also, don't forget that big companies aren't going to just swallow that hit in interest rate rises, they're going to increase the rates of interest which their customers have to pay in order to mitigate against that rise hitting their bottom line profits. So you'll probably see the interest rate on things like mortgages or credit cards going up a bit too in order to pay for that.

The problem I personally have with these companies which do credit ratings is that they're completely unelected bodies who are accountable to nobody but their shareholders yet they can make these decisions which can have a huge impact on whole countries. In the example we're talking about, they've already admitted that they made a miscalculation of over $2 trillion when they were deciding on these credit levels for the US, that's $2,000,000,000,000. Their decisions have huge impacts but they're able to make these massive mistakes and nobody can hold them to account for it. That's not a good situation.

[Scot]

AA+meriKKKa, fuck yeah!

[Kingmaker]

the credit rating system is embarrassing. i guarantee 95% of the populous didnt know about our US credit rating until all this fear-mongering that happened from our manufactured crisis. yet this is gonna screw everyone, it affects every day interest rates on the US government to borrow money and the strength of our dollar, affects companies/government programs that are reliant on government subsidies, it affects the world because the dollar is the "world" standards of stability, it affects every day people by increasing the rate on large purchases like homes/cars, and it effects everyone through the stock market in a circular logic effect. ie we have bad credit, stocks drop, stocks dropped so people pull money out, people pull money out so stocks drop more. etc. my two cents. hope u guys have money saved up

[pyke]

emigrate from the best country in the world?!
FUCK THAT.

soulstealer can come to america and afew of you canadians and acouple of the england fellows. we are still the super power. dont care what anyone says

Best country in the world?



Anyway, congrats USA! The people that refused to raise your debt ceiling because you have a spending problem have effectively added 100+ billion dollars to your debt every year.

[Rikku]

Best country in the world?



Anyway, congrats USA! The people that refused to raise your debt ceiling because you have a spending problem have effectively added 100+ billion dollars to your debt every year.

well I'm glad to see that at least someone here is not fooled by all of the smoke and mirrors!

[luvsmyncis]

^ just be a smart american and dont buy what you cant afford and this wont even effect you the least.

It's the American way to buy it before you've actually earned enough to afford it.

[Shampoo]

Screw you all. I like my country and im not leaving. fuck obama, fuck the left and the right seats and screw congress. This country is still the most beautiful country in world. haters.

living in a country for the landscape is like eating soup because you like the spoon

(chart full of ridiculous crap to make europeans feel better about their own even more dire debt crisis)

The reason this discussion is disappointing is because there probably aren't very many finance or economics students or professionals in your audience. Neopets has nothing to do with it.

yup. none of those here. not a single one.

[Legault]

Just think about it.
Maybe with this new AA+ Rating, others countries will expect less from us and we'll actually be able to keep our money to ourselves instead of throwing it around the world

[WharfRat]

Some of you people are either misguided, ignorant, or trolling. (I'm inclined towards the first, though...)

America isn't a bad place to live... It's a great country... However, our incompetent politicians who are unwilling to compromise and whom live in a purely ideological world that isn't ruled by real life are killing it. There is a reason the education system is broken in this country... There is a reason we are one of the last 1st world westernized democracies to come towards socialized medicine... There is a reason we are in debt up to our eyeballs! A) The American people are too dumb to care about politics... B) As I mentioned above, our politicians are incompetent and not diplomatic whatsoever. C)The middle class is caught in this myth of Horatio Alger... The middle class identifies themselves with the wealthy and they fight vehemently for the rights of the wealthy while the wealthy become filthy rich off the backs of the poor and middle class. There are several systems in place to keep the bottom class poor and to keep the wealthy stinking rich. (Though that is a subject for another topic...)

The point here is that nothing good comes from a credit downgrade. Now, we have an extra 100 billion dollars/year in interest to pay off that we didn't have before. (Note: The war in Afghanistan is ~120 billion annually) Think about the healthcare that could have been granted to the poor with that money... or the education that could be given to impoverished children... All that extra money burnt away because politicians couldn't unify in the interest of our nation. It's pathetic and nothing good will come of it.

[Kingmaker]

America is a great place to live. I love your chart on the stuff we are not so good at. but we consistently in the top. and mind you there are many critical things that arent on there. obviously ie biggest military, standard of living, one of the lower tax rates, best higher-learning system (college and beyond), most advanced science programs (ie ITs, space, chem, bio), best advancement in medical drugs to extend life and ease pain, and probably the biggest thing the best place in the world for OPPORTUNITY to better one's life. JS.