I usually enjoy this program, but the hysterical screed against S&P, replete with phrases like "stupid", "incompetent", "criminal"and the hint of xenophobia does your reputation as a measured commentary on the political scene no service. This vitriol rivals Olberman's most ranting moments. I am sorry to hear language here for the first time that resembles the worst of what we get from right wing radio talk shows.

It's all the more perplexing because there seems no point in it, apart from some cathartic venting. I expected better here.

Lawrence, "Thank you for your closing speech on our Brave Troops!!! Gop/Tee "Was threatening to "Default America" for 2 months,and disrupted and Placed so much Fear into our working class Americans, "They completely "Forgot" "Our Troops are in great Danger, "Protecting America" !!!!! I am "Appalled" at Boehner,Cantors Teaparty "Threats" and Fear on our Military Families, and the dark shadow on our Troops minds of "Not recieving "Pay" from their Government????? The "Concern" of their pay,has put our troops in "Great Danger" America found this out, Saturday!!! My Heart goes to our "Fallen Heroes" families!!

We attack the Mayor with hummus.

. --- Oz, BTVS

I just want to point out that after a bit of having somebody described as the stupidest, most irresponsible financial analysts ever, some of us out here start hearing it as a DARE.

I kept saying to myself, "Oh, I can come up with dumber analysis, easy!"

Lawrence,I love your show.You nail it everytime.You go right for the truth.Great show,keep it up.

I believe there is a bigger story here with the S&P rating. This is just another way for the Tea Party and GROVER NORQUIST to destroy Obama and the United States. Who is paying these guys to be at the beck and call of Norquist? These "Public Servants" who get their checks and all their entitlements from the government are obviously working more for Norquist than the American people. When they want entitlement reform are they also talking about their Entiltlements???

Everybody pays the same tax. Don't cap Social Security at $106,000. Everybody pays the same percentage no matter how much they make. Social Security is then solvent. Flat tax our incomes-one tax rate for everyone. No exclusions. If we want to spend more for Federal programs, the taxes will have to be raised a certain percentage. If we want to live like a third world country, we can lower the taxes for everyone. We get what we pay for.

America needs to grow up and get a grip . The downgrade came because thegop got its way . What did the Country do before S&P , or the other ratings agencies . The way I see it President Obama ,should use his bus tour and meet the real world and tell the country where we stand . His advisors may shriek stop making a speech every 5 minutes and joining the blame game . As for jobs the gop ,is not going to let any body get jobs . They the status quo keep the Country broke . The talking heads on tv keep screaming for the President to call Congress back into session - my question is to do what ? They want to raise taxes ,work on jobs programs ,but they do want to collect their paychecks . Americans are a hardy people ,but we need to quit all the whining . Actually regular people aren't whining its Wall Street who is crying and its kind of hard to feel anything for them . Am I wrong ?

 S & P  are same folks who  rated JUNK  mortgage securities as  TRIPLE AAA   S & P has no credibility  ! But yes we  must cut  but cut fairly, not  the GOP  hatchet job way.  This  toxic  GOP bagger deal was made under duress, threat  of default  

Thats blackmail  &  the  dirtiest  kind of politics. I will not reward  GOP  Tea Baggers for their devious greedy schemes.  

Suzette, I wasnt trying to elicit the normal progressive nonsense about how wonderful Omama is, nor how the whole issue stands with the Tea Party over the debt crisis, notwithstanding lets try again. If you had read the first paragraph of Obama's rise to power, he skipped several important steps. Could you imagine if you are managing a department at work, then got promoted to VP for 2 short years then CEO? seriously do you or anyone else think you would be qualifiied? This is what we have now in the White House, an educated articulate speaker and gentle-man who is just in over his head. He does not have leadership qualities, the fortitude to form cohesiveness, a strategic approach to Long term growth ( still no budget for over 800 days) , no common sense of how to move the country forward( no structured deal on the debt-he used Boehners)....Now the progressives are an affront to Americans when they listen to the idiot pundits on MSNBC stipulating the the whole cause for the debt crisis was the Tea Party. Perhaps you can look at Pelosi and her crowd layering upon layering of entitlement programs on the backs of hard working tax payers, and someone anyone had to put a stop to this madness.

Mr. O'Donald is not responsible for the commercials that precede his program's news items.  BUT, I resent having Exon's "message" shoved down my throat EVERY TIME I try to watch anything.  Hey, everyone has to make money on these news channels, but MY GOD, give me a break!  I am not even given the option of skipping the thing.  At least in print media I can NOT look at the ads if I don't want to.  

Here is a very significant article by the Council on Foreign Relations, containing information that should be more broadly covered by the news media:

<#p5>

The Big Three Credit Rating Agencies had a huge role in worsening the European debt crisis.  EU loudly criticized them for the European downgrades, alleging that S&P, Moody's and Fitch are biased in favor of the U.S. 

Voices in the EU threatened to start a European Credit Rating Agency to compete with the Big Three, and the UU officially threatened these Rating Agencies with more European regulations:

As stated in the attached article,

"In the wake of the Portugal downgrade, Commissioner Barnier, in addition to calling for a European agency, said the EU would reveal further measures (Guardian) to regulate the Big Three in the fall of 2011, forcing them to be more transparent."

Under these economic threats against them by the EU, was S&P motivated (by their own profit motive) to downgrade U.S. debt primarily to counter the EU criticism and threats of more regulations against them??

Note that the head of S&P's Sovereign Debt Desk in charge of the U.S. downgrade is based in London.

As advocated by the Council on Foreign Relations,

"The best way to counter the monopolistic power of the Big Three, [CFR's Mallaby] argues, is to stop putting so much weight in their ratings."

"The reason why the subprime bubble could happen, or the reason why the European sovereign debt crisis can happen is, largely, that very blind investors bought bonds relying on ratings, and [didn't do] their own homework about what the real credit risk was in the bonds," says Mallaby.

As the article also points out,

"In addition to creating an Office of Credit Ratings at the SEC, the July 2010 Dodd-Frank Act invested the SEC with the authority to examine NRSROs [nationally recognized statistical rating organizations] on an annual basis, levy fines when necessary, and even deregister an agency for providing inaccurate ratings."

Is it time for the SEC to act?

The article by the Council on Foreign Relations, referred to in my last post, is called "The Credit Rating Controversy".

Apparently this blog will not let me post the HTML link, but you can find it by copying the following in your browser:

cfr.org/united-states/credit-rating-controversy/p22328#p5