I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but ...
... is the bond rating mess just grade inflation at it's worst?
I mean I'm no economist and my personal relationship with money isn't going to impress any Suze Ormans out there, but when I heard that our country's triple AAA rating was being downgraded -- my concern turned into a chuckle-fit when I heard that our new classification was ... AA+.
Oh I'm sure there are consequences for this action and it's inspired another round of talking heads with their talking points in the blame game that has replaced leadership from any party on any side -- but AA+ doesn't sound that apocalyptic.
It just reminds me of how 93 used to be the cut-off for an A when I was in school, until the grading scale underwent some kind of metric conversion or dumbing down of the numbers to 10 point increments. Then suddenly, A's were more prevalent, and the kids who used to derive self-worth from A's had to strive for A+s or perfect scores or always do the extra credit that was offered just to separate themselves from the new 'A' kids on the block (not that I'm bitter or elitist or an out-of-touch overachiever or anything).
Of course, when a two trillion dollar error can have no effect on the organization's decision (really -- plus or minus 2,000,000,000,000 doesn't matter?), then I guess we're not necessarily dealing with all that much that makes sense to me anyway. If I have to conceptualize it to internalize it, then, in my mind, I'll just think of our current credit status as that of a well-performing Alcoholics Anonymous member -- except that if debt is our "sauce", we're never going to get ourselves a sober token.
Dare I say -- is this the death knoll for LBJ's Great Society? (I think I got a 'B' on the paper I wrote on that presidential policy launch way back when -- although, if I resubmit it, perhaps it can be bumped up to a higher category in today's world!)
THE SOVEREIGN CREDIT RATING PRIMER:
http://www.politonomist.com/sovereign-credit-ratings-revealed-002626/
THE OLD GRADING SYSTEM STILL EXISTS IN SOME POCKETS:
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/jefferson_to_consider_lowering.html
WHY 1964 WAS CALLED "ONE OF THE TOP 10 ELECTIONS" BY TIME:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1856551_1856544_1856536,00.html
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