What is Digg?278 Comments
- doctorfungi, on 01/12/2008, -1/+107I wish I could be 9 trillion dollars in debt and still have a triple A credit rating...
- geddon, on 01/12/2008, -8/+85"Unless it takes action to curb soaring healthcare and social security spending?" When given the choice between helping out its citizens and "Democratizing" the world, you can that we the people will be sacrificed before the credit rating.
- Euler2718, on 01/12/2008, -9/+81More than half the comments thus far have been about Ron Paul...wow
- extratwice, on 01/12/2008, -9/+67If only I could get Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan to put a link to this on their crotch.
- inactive, on 01/12/2008, -4/+52Step 1: bankrupt the economy with wars of choice and tax cuts for the super rich.
Step 2: notice that the economy is bankrupt and claim that it is due to spending on social security, medicare, etc.
Step 3: begin dismantling said programs.
Nice to see that at least one of Bush's initiatives is proceeding according to plan. - degron, on 01/12/2008, -2/+40And that includes yours too.
- Kahlzarg, on 01/12/2008, -0/+30On the bright side, thanks to the falling USD Aussies can get stuff from Amazon for cheaper than they can in Australia, even after postage.
- KeefTM, on 01/12/2008, -2/+31I saw a commercial about this. Congress should go check out freecreditreport.com
- mr.hostility, on 01/12/2008, -0/+28Of course we *could* stop pumping obscene amounts of money into a useless occupation(err..war), stop trying to bail out banks and failed real estate speculators...
- iching, on 01/12/2008, -2/+29
The thing is that Moody is to have partial blame for the subprime meltdown and now attacks the government sector as a solution to their ratings caused in the private sector.
(Fortune Magazine) -- While Bear Stearns is the most recent financial institution to find itself caught up in the subprime-mortgage quagmire, the three credit-rating agencies - Standard & Poor's, Moody's (Charts), and Fitch - may be the next ones to see their good names dragged through the mud.
The reason? Ohio attorney general Marc Dann is building a case against them based on the role he believes their ratings played in the marketing of risky mortgage-related securities.
"The ratings agencies cashed a check every time one of these subprime pools was created and an offering was made," Dann told Fortune, referring to the way the bond issuers paid to get their asset-backed securities (ABSs) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) rated by the agencies. These ratings run from AAA for debt with the lowest risk of default all the way down to noninvestment- grade bonds, which many pension funds are prohibited from purchasing in their charters. "[The agencies] continued to rate these things AAA . [So they are] among the people who aided and abetted this continuing fraud," adds Dann.
Ohio has the third-largest group of public pensions in the United States, and they've got exposure: The Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund has nearly 7 percent of its portfolio in mortgage- and asset-backed obligations
http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/05/news/economy/subpr ...
This is from the Spoof but there is a ring of truth around it.
The outright fraud and criminality of the debt rating companies Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch "is good for America" said Ben Bernanke, chief of the US Federal Reserve, in an exclusive interview with FMLiveWire.
"Without the services of those three crooked outfits, we would never have been able to unload our mountain of trashy and worthless debt on idiot investors here and throughout the world," Bernanke stated candidly.
Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann is investigating the three credit-rating agencies for mortgage fraud and their fraudulent ratings of crap debt as investment grade AAA for high-risk mortgage lenders and other rip-off artists.
The rating companies profited hugely when an investment bank created a subprime loan pool with securities rated at triple A. The rating agencies thereby abetted the fraud against investors like Ohio and other state pension sponsors who would otherwise avoid such risky low-rated debt. Instead, they ate it up.
In addition to Ohio's interest, dozens of class action lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages have been filed against the rating agencies and mortgage lenders. - Givemestr8news, on 01/12/2008, -2/+27:( I miss the old USA
- musicload, on 01/12/2008, -67/+89this is why we need a sound monetary guy like Ron Paul
- diggerydood, on 01/12/2008, -3/+23They will start another war to take the focus away from the crashing economy.
- anarchytv, on 01/12/2008, -1/+19Check ebay... confederate dollars are now worth twice what US dollars are...
- inactive, on 01/12/2008, -2/+20Ok, all you've got to do is have an annual income of $13.1 trillion and you can!
- INTERNETMASTER, on 01/12/2008, -4/+21george bush has officially ruined america :(
- inactive, on 01/12/2008, -0/+17This is funny though. Trillions on foreign adventures and military expenditures and now they are going to punish the people who didn't want these wars in the first place. I've often thought that the Neocon agenda was the destruction of the programs mentioned here by way of needless war and empire. What they want is to keep the empire and enslave the American people. The economic damage they needed to create the facade to carry it out is already done.
- inactive, on 01/12/2008, -2/+17***** the US needs Guillotines fast. These bastards would place social security (which is close to third world levels as is) before waging a war. Pentagon spends 500 billion (500.000.000.000) dollars per year. The Iraq imperial oilgrab expedition costs a trillion (1.000.000.000.000) on top of that. Veterans and long term parts replacements, interest etc cost another trillion. How much would half of all that serve to get a quadruple AAAA rating?
But Nooooo that ***** bush wants some extra raptors and MOABs. - inactive, on 01/12/2008, -5/+20republicans are the worst at the economy
- inactive, on 01/12/2008, -4/+16I'm going to start converting my dollars into Monopoly money.
- TxAggie08, on 01/12/2008, -0/+11LOL, I'm getting Dugg down for presenting facts. Nice.
- inactive, on 01/12/2008, -2/+13The US spends more on the NY fire department than it does on the UN. Gets your facts straight, ignoramus.
- inactive, on 01/12/2008, -8/+18I don't think Americans are intelligent enough to understand Ron Paul. But yes, Borrow 10 billion from China to give it to Pakistan, you're doing your children well.
- wanderlust424, on 01/12/2008, -16/+26Get rid of the evil Federal reserve empire who had the audacity to attach "federal" to their name when they have no such affiliations!
- magamiako, on 01/12/2008, -4/+14I'd rather we start dismantling the War on Terror, significantly reduce the Department of Defense.
Awesome link here: http://www.thebudgetgraph.com/site/index.php?main_ ...
We spend 109 Billion more dollars on national defense than we do on Social Security.
We reduced the amount of money we get from corporate taxes. Estate Tax is also only a small amount of our budget.
I support an increase in taxation on the wealthy. So does Warren Buffet. http://youtube.com/watch?v=Cu5B-2LoC4s
According to his own research, people lower than him paid 32.9% in taxes while he only paid 17% of his wealth in taxes.
Here's how we start to fix our government's spending problem:
Drastically reduce the National Defense Budget to below that of Medicare. We would save hundreds of billions of dollars.
Increase corporate taxation.
Increase taxation on the wealthy.
Then we'll start to see more money floating around. - cybermort, on 01/12/2008, -0/+10not if you're a multinational, CEO of a multinational, Saudi Arabian Price, born extremely ***** wealthy... etc.
trickle down economics doesn't work. People are too selfish instead of increasing pay to their lowest payed employes they rather inflate their stocks with a buy back program, or hefty dividend. - inactive, on 01/12/2008, -2/+11Or, oddly enough, Bill Clinton (or Al Gore). Basically any president who would have avoided 2 major wars would have been seeing absolutely amazing prosperity in this decade.
- jjohnstn, on 01/12/2008, -0/+9The Moody's credit rating is based on a government or company's ability to pay back the debt. It is not related to the debt/income ratio that consumer lenders use. More info: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/03/102203.asp
- jstone, on 01/12/2008, -0/+9You completely missed the French Revolution reference, didn't you?
- robinthehood, on 01/12/2008, -9/+17I just read that Ron Paul can turn water into wine! Ron Paul! RON PAUL!!1!!11!!1!111 OMFG RON PAUL!!!11!1!1
***** it's impossible to glean anything worthwhile out of this site anymore with all the sheeple bleeting for this guy.
Again, on principle he has good (dare I say great ideas), to everyone in la la land we live in the REAL WORLD. The guy is a Libertarian. As much as we all like to think that everyone can look after themselves the sad truth of the matter is they can't.
Instead of bleeting every chance you get try picking up a damn history book once in a while.
You all say Ron Paul is ***** Jesus Christ yet you're all proving exactly what's wrong with American Politics. The fact that people want group together with their own kind. Sadly, digg has become that place for all things Ron Paul. - MrCobaltBlue, on 01/12/2008, -3/+11NASA would do much better in the private sector then being a government program...
As for Iraq "We just went in, so why can't we just pull out?" all the people who said it would be a cakewalk are the people who are saying it'll be a disaster if we pull out. Why listen to them? They were wrong (again)! - inactive, on 01/12/2008, -4/+12Odd. The rest of the civilized, industrial world fares extremely well with nationalized healthcare. maybe you people in the US should look at how a modern country is managed instead of trying to emulate right wing third world dictatorships.
- CY13ERPUNK, on 01/12/2008, -0/+7soooo true, and so sad that that's basically what american society cares more about, it's no wonder this country is in such *****
- asauterChicago, on 01/12/2008, -0/+7If NASA could be a profitable private company, someone would have already done it. Seriously, if there was money to be made in space travel, someone would have created a business plan and funded it. Problem is, there's no money to be made, it's simply space exploration. And honestly it's one of things that has made this country great. You wouldn't have a computer to type on to complain about NASA funding if it wasn't for NASA. It's amazing how fast people forget history.
- andergriff, on 01/12/2008, -0/+7If anything can bring a government down, it's the crumbling of its debt rating. Without a AAA rating, taxpayers will be forced to pay for the increase in returns demanded by others who buy those government bonds used to keep the bloat-ocracy afloat. The "taxes" are paid in the form of inflation. Here we go...
- MrCobaltBlue, on 01/12/2008, -0/+7Actually you're mistaken, Ron Paul supports continuing to support Social Security recipents, but he wants the younger generation to opt out of it. He's not trying to screw anyone over, he's trying to help people.
- TxAggie08, on 01/12/2008, -6/+12"The seven members of the Board of Governors are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to serve 14-year terms of office. Members may serve only one full term, but a member who has been appointed to complete an unexpired term may be reappointed to a full term. The President designates, and the Senate confirms, two members of the Board to be Chairman and Vice Chairman, for four-year terms."
Who appoints the head of the Federal reserve again? Oh yeah, the President of the federal government. You forgot, but there I helped you. - inactive, on 01/12/2008, -0/+6Yes *please* get your troops out and stop bullying the whole world.
- drlha, on 01/12/2008, -2/+8If you think that about NASA you're a ***** idiot. There's a reason why the public sector nowhere in the world is funding the kind of pure science that NASA is doing. If you want to kill the USA's space program, which costs a minute fraction of the budget, kill NASA. Personally however, NASA's contribution to the world of science is one of the few government funded programs that any of us have a reason to be proud of.
- MrCobaltBlue, on 01/12/2008, -0/+5He's definately a racist! Look he's going to push her out of the wheelchair!
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h181/aspears4/dr ...
Fun fact chief: Libertarianism is the enemy of racism. Good job being a media shill though, go back to watching O'Reilly. - TheActionCombo, on 01/12/2008, -0/+5I'm converting my dollars into WoW gold.
- inactive, on 01/12/2008, -0/+5Direct and indirect costs of Iraq and Afghanistan are going to be about 2 trillion dollars (the bulk for Iraq). And for our money we paved the way for Iran to take over the region. All over WMDs that didn't exist even though weapons inspectors ON THE GROUND IN IRAQ were screaming their heads off, pretty much right up till the war began, that there were no WMDs.
It is staggering in the scope and depth of its stupidity. Staggering. It is stupid on a scale that the unthinkable, a credit downgrade, now looks possible. - solistus, on 01/12/2008, -0/+5How about we curb the $1 trillion defence budget instead? Then we can afford to have good credit AND health care.
- inactive, on 01/12/2008, -2/+7That has been the playbook since Reagan.
- FluffyWolf, on 01/12/2008, -0/+5Out in the real world outside of the US, countries which have "free" health care spends as much public funds as the US is on health care, so the US is currently having the same level of public spending as the rest of the civilized world without having the any of the benefits of "free" health care. Going "free" might be saving money in the end.
USA public spending is 6.75% of the GDP (45% of all health care expenditures are public) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_Un ...
Canadian public spending is 7.42% of the GDP (70% of health care spending is public in Canada) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Canada - anarchytv, on 01/12/2008, -0/+5Haha... triple A Rating my ass....
- brendonsmall, on 01/12/2008, -0/+5"...unless it takes radical action to curb soaring healthcare and social security spending."? Hows about spending a few trillion dollars less a year on the big bad war machine? I mean really, the U.S. forces are top notch, and could definitely afford to be cut down a bit. Taking out loans to fund crazy UAVs and what not could *probably* get curbed for a decade or two and help things out a bit.
- nickvd, on 01/12/2008, -1/+6I fail to understand how anyone or any country could be well over a TRILLION dollars in debt, yet still have a Triple-A credit rating...
Unless Triple-A is the worst you can have... - TxAggie08, on 01/12/2008, -1/+5The private sector can barely get into orbit. Furthermore there is no profit in something like finding life on Mars, or searching for earth like worlds. NASA is needed to do what only NASA can, explore and study the universe.
- mr5150, on 01/12/2008, -1/+5And this all happened under the watchfull and respected eyes of Greenspan and Bernakee the greatest financial con-men/criminals America has ever known.
I say never let the fox mind the chicken coup..but hey that's just me. -
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