Wednesday, August 03, 2011

More Debt Deal Fallout: U.S. Credit Rating Downgrade Looms

by JASmius




Barack Obama and his party of Keynesian savages obstructed Cap, Cut & Balance, Speaker Boehner and Senator McConnell made sure he had to own it, and now cometh the whirlwind boomeraging in the White House's direction:




Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings affirmed their AAA credit ratings for the U.S. while warning that the ratings could be downgraded if lawmakers fail to enact debt reduction measures and the economy weakens.


The rating outlook is now negative, Moody’s said in a statement yesterday after President Barack Obama signed into law a plan to lift the nation’s borrowing limit and cut spending....


A ratings cut would raise the specter that the wrangling between Obama and Republican lawmakers over spending cuts and taxes will harm American prestige and the global financial system. JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimated that a downgrade would raise the nation’s borrowing costs by $100 billion a year. It could also hurt the rest of the U.S. economy by increasing the cost of mortgages, auto loans and other types of lending tied to the interest rates paid on Treasurys.


“A downgrade is a sign that Congress is failing to address a real fiscal issue,” Guy LeBas, chief fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia, said in an interview before the announcements.


Congress AND the White House. And that "real fiscal issue" will remain unaddressed unless and until Republicans regain control of both. Read the balance of the article; it's uglier than a triple centerfold of Roseann Barr, Rosie O'Donnell, and Hillary Clinton in a lesbo threesome in Hoghunter magazine. And it's all resting squarely upon Godbama's big, fat, inflated head. Think the GOP won't be wielding that hammer daily over the next fifteen months? They wouldn't have it if Tea Partiers had gotten their way.


Here's another piece of the crisis that Red Barry no longer wants:



The committee of bond dealers and investors that advises the U.S. Treasury said the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency “appears to be slipping” in quarterly feedback presented to the government.


The Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, which includes representatives from firms ranging from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Pacific Investment Management Co., said the outperformance of safe-haven currencies and those from emerging nations has aided in the debasement of the dollar’s reserve status, according to comments included in discussion charts presented ahead of the quarterly refunding. The Treasury published the documents today.


“The idea of a reserve currency is that it is built on strength, not typically that it is ‘best among poor choices’,” page 35 of presentation made by one committee member said. “The fact that there are not currently viable alternatives to the U.S. dollar is a hollow victory and perhaps portends a deteriorating fate.”


Know who's one of the biggest voices hollaring for dethroning "King Dollar" (to borrow a Kudlowism)? Red China. Perhaps the two are related; and perhaps that's been part of The One's "wrenchingly transformative" endgame all along, except for the part of him having to take his uncomfortably [heh] "fair share" of the blame for it.


So what are their options? (1) Smear the GOP and (2) make excuses so risible that not even Paul Krugman would buy them.


Case in point:



President Barack Obama's spokesman is discounting talk that the economy may be headed back into recession, despite recent concerns of economists.


Spokesman Jay Carney says there is no question that economic growth and job creation have slowed over the past half year.


But, Carney told a White House briefing, "We do not believe that there is a threat of a double-dip recession."...


He blamed the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, higher energy prices, default worries in Europe and recently resolved uncertainty over raising America's borrowing limit.

Carney said, "We believe the economy will continue to grow."


And we all thought "Beltway Bob" Gibbs was a pathetic, windmill-tilting bastard with the worst job in the world. Carney's such a three-watt bulb (wait a minute - didn't the Dems ban those?) you have to wonder if he even realizes what a complete boob he sounds like spouting this nonsense. Either that or the whizkids in the Regime's propaganda shop secretly want to feed every GOP "the President is hopelessly out of touch" narrative the PR equivalent of "liquid Schwartz." Besides, wasn't it Dr. Chicago himself who once claimed to be the one who would, among other Charlton Heston-esque miracles, "lower the sea levels"? Guess he was on the back nine when the Japs got hit a few months back, huh?


If I may roll out my translation disgronificator once more, what Carney was REALLY saying is, "We want you noodle-headed voters to believe the economy (1) is growing and (2) will continue to grow at the breakneck clip we don't want you to realize it laughingly isn't." As though the public is still in doubt about this little fact, and there's some deep, dark mystery about the Duffer-in-Chief's plummeting-like-Miley-Cyrus'-neckline approval numbers.


Sounds to me like Red Barry needs to turn in his golf shoes for a set of bowling shoes. Then maybe if he clicks them together enough times, and crosses his fingers, toes, eyes, and touches his ears together, maybe wishing really will be enough to save his worthless ass.


Otherwise, he'll have to rely on the Tea Party's roaring political naivete to save him.


Hmm; maybe he's not entirely without hope after all.





[cross posted at Hard Starboard]

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