Standard & Poor’s Hacks Downgrade..... America!  
From Rick's Picks Daily Commentary
And now we learn that Standard & Poor’s, the same unprincipled hacks whose grossly inflated triple-A ratings made America’s real estate boom and still-busting bust possible, has downgraded the USA itself. Or to be more precise, their long-term outlook fell from “stable” to “negative” – a Kremlinesque way of hinting that an actual downgrade from AAA is possible if the U.S. doesn’t get its fiscal house in order (as though that were even possible, given that the Federal debt is $14.3 trillion and climbing, and that the economy is on a permanent respirator). And whose payroll is S&P on, we wonder? Until yesterday, we thought they were so busy putting the screws to Europe’s financial cripples that there wasn’t time or manpower enough to pore over America’s books. Now, it would appear, they’ve found actual fiscal problems to worry about even if the real worries eupted like Vesuvius three years ago. And another thing: Whenever they slam the PIIGS by taking their credit ratings down a peg or two, it is usually to buoy the U.S. dollar that day so that Little Timmy Geithner’s pep talk at some Rotary Club luncheon gets good press. Whatever the reason for yesterday’s downgrade – about as shocking to millions of Americans as the revelation that Liberace was gay – it was fun to watch the bond market react.