Do you think Standard
&
amp; Poor was correct to downgrade the United State’s credit
rating?
THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:
Question of the week: “Do you think Standard & Poor was correct to downgrade the United State’s credit rating?” Yes: 6 No: 6
- Karen Anderson: “Yes. Congress failed to put a comprehensive package together that would address the deficit. We never learned the lesson of the Vietnam war: Wars must be paid with taxes, not debt. Consequences are dire.”
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Dave Appling: “No, or at least not now. A grave warning was surely needed of downstream economic risk if we don’t restore sanity and reason to government. But downgrading our credit rating at this time was premature and destabilizing. The risk of default is precisely the same today as it was in July: virtually zero.”
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Bert Berson: “No. Based on performance over the last five years I suggest that S&P be downgraded from incompetent to unconscious.”
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Chris Bryant: “Yes, some consider this change motivated only by politics and not real economics. In any case, the shake up is necessary as politicians will only make real changes when extreme pressure is applied and unfortunately, public apathy requires pressure be motivated by pain.
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David Cohen: “No. But they obviously wanted to send a message to the Washington politicians. A good idea, but the execution of that has had a profound message on the world’s economic markets.”
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Dennis Kennedy: “No. Theirs was a purely political act which unnecessarily threw the market into a tail spin.”
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Julian Mancias: “No. One of the reasons that the S&P gave for the downgrade was because of the political stalemate, which should not have factored into the equation.”
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Henry Miller: “I have no idea. But if I have to guess, I’ll say, yes. But I really, really have no idea.”
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Jeff Nunes: “Yes. S&P warned us months ago that we would be downgraded if we didn’t cut $4 trillion of spending, and our government decided to ignore the warning, and basically reached a deal that in reality cuts virtually nothing. Now, our national debt stands at about 100 percent of GDP. While we may not like the decision, looking at the balance sheet, it is hard under these circumstances to call their decision incorrect.”
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Lisa Pampuch: “No. The fact that investors rushed to buy Treasury bills after the downgrade shows investors still think of them as the safest place for their money, especially in uncertain times. The fact that other rating agencies did not follow suit also suggests that S&P was hasty. However, S&P was absolutely correct to identify the GOP’s willingness to take this nation to the brink of default and the GOP’s unwillingness to address the revenue side of the balance sheet (that is, tax increases for wealthy households) as major ongoing threats to America’s fiscal health.”
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Jeff Smith: “Of course they were. It’s a little surprising they didn’t do it long ago. The financial situation in this country is completely unsustainable. We cannot continue to spend money we don’t have and rack up massive debt we cannot pay – but this is exactly what Obama and the liberals have been doing. Now when our credit rating gets downgraded they blame the Tea Party and the rating agency? Give me a break!”
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Steve Staloch: “Yes. Even though the rating bar has been lowered internationally, this was essentially a vote of no confidence in our leadership’s ability to deal with this threat to national security.
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