>http://economicsofcontempt.blogspot.com/2011/08/on-s-downgrades-and-idiots.html
>
>>Look, I know these S&P guys. [...] To say that S&P analysts aren't
>>the sharpest tools in the drawer is a massive understatement.
Maybe. But you don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that there is some risk entailed in lending money to the US government. This is a government which is ferociously unwilling to levy taxes, in fact a big percentage of its lawmakers are so out of touch with reality they demand that taxes be lowered!
So they won't even pretend that they intend to make an effort to pay. Even the Greek government is putting up a pretence.
And they go on spending money on giant nuclear aircraft carriers and the like. Which suggests it might be tricky to send the bailiffs in to repossess the furniture when, inevitably, they finally admit they can't make the payments.
In fact I think the only issue is why it took so long for someone to mention that the emperor had no clothes, so to speak. That these are debts that won't be repaid. And maybe it takes a bunch clueless idiots, like you say S & P analysts are? Simply too dopey to realise that the US government is actually a global protection racket, and that the "loans" aren't really expected to be re-paid. Or to notice that the big burly blokes in bad suits who came around to get the regular tick of approval were carrying baseball bats and wearing knuckle-dusters. And were making an offer you can't refuse.
Oops. Someone at S & P will be wearing concrete gumboots soon perhaps? Or enjoying the hospitality of the Hotel Gitmo? ;-)
Bill Bartlett Bracknell tas