many country's credit being downgraded, how long will USA last?

Spain cut
news.bbc.co.uk...

Greece cut
www.nzherald.co.nz...

Briton next?
www.guardian.co.uk...

Here is a site that ranks country's credit
www.iimagazinerankings.com...

USA is ranked 12th
Spain is 17th
Greece is 27th
United kingdom 10th

They are falling all around us,how long will we last?
What happens if we are downgraded?

Especially since the debt ceiling will be raised again within a week...

And that the bond auction today failed...

Not to mention Ukraine is bankrupt...Dubai... Venezuela about to be in a severe crisis... Lebanon... Ireland...Iceland...

A famine just started in Argentina and nobody is talking about it...

But the credit rating agency should be shut down since they scammed millions of people when they kept those bankrupts banks (AIG, CITI, GS, BOA, ect..) as AAA for so long...

They've admitted that they are being paid to keep those ratings artificially high... it's a joke.

[edit on 10-12-2009 by Vitchilo]

A system for crooks by crooks. I'm not sure what exactly happens when our credit get downgraded. Of course it is just like a credit care, higher interest rates and the like, but I also think it effects all banks too so that means highers costs to get loans and which means price of good goes up to do the the higher cost of money.

It isn't good, but I would venture to guess if the raise the debt ceiling then it won't be very long until they do downgrade our credit rating. If that happens the situation we are going to go through will be way worse than the great depression.

You guys are just too damn hard on these things.

I think what is happening now in Copenhagen, is just wonderful. A treaty to help the environment.

Look at what we have done for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Look at how the TARP and TARF have kept the US economy from imploding.

Look at how the next stimulus will help the American worker.

This message brought to you by?

A) Sarcastic asshat
B) One of the sheeple
C) A viewer of the MSM
D) All of the above

Hi there After checking the rankings I am curious. With U.K @ 10, U.S @ 12, Spain being #17 would that indicate that the countries below that are at risk of this also happening? I am in west australia and follow this site regularly and am very interested in how people see it panning out for australia. We are constantly fed the same old line that because of the resource sector over here the GFC hasn't and won't really have an effect. But things on street level don't seem as glossy as we are being told..

reply to post by wilko


the OP's site is for 2007, not 2009 .... I am sure they are somewhere in the same ball park though.

Why are the Norwegians always so damn good at everything?

Originally posted by wilko
We are constantly fed the same old line that because of the resource sector over here the GFC hasn't and won't really have an effect.

Hi wilko. I'm not sure how you feel about Barnaby Joyce , but I think he just let a little air out of that myth. Bear in mind that this scenario is predicated on a sovereign debt default by the US.

Realistic odds ?

Joyce's Armageddon warning
December 11, 2009

TONY Abbott's new finance spokesman, Barnaby Joyce, believes the American Government may default on its debt, triggering an ''economic Armageddon'' that will make the recent global financial crisis pale into insignificance.

"If America collapses there will be no more sale of Chinese products to America and therefore very little purchase of Australian resources by China."

Full Text

GFC ? I'm pretty sure China wouldn't be buying your resources at previous levels...no , I think China would seize the op to buy your resource companies , and at distressed fire-sale prices no doubt. Same might hold for Canada and other resource rich , export dependent economies.

Why buy the milk , when you can get the cow for free ?

Thanks for replying.
I am not really aware of the likelihood of America defaulting although I know that would surely be a bad thing, correct? Totally uneducated financially but the way I see it and correct me if I'm wrong but when time comes for U.S to pay on bonds to people who have bought the debt, if they are unable to collect then surely it rolls downhill.. i.e if U.S owes China or Japan and can't pay, then if these countries owe AU they won't pay either? Probably a very simplistic way of trying to understand but are my fundamentals correct?

Really wish I had learned something about economics at school Would make all this a lot easier to understand.

Am pretty sure that if they wanted to China could not only buy the cow but the whole farm if they wanted to over here.

Originally posted by wilko
Am pretty sure that if they wanted to China could not only buy the cow but the whole farm if they wanted to over here.

I think Confucius said that

Never too late...you can go to school right here wilko. Reading Rockpuck , and a few other astute ATS observers will raise your E-IQ before you can say: Asymmetrical senior collateralized debt obligations.

Sounds like your off to a good start

reply to post by OBE1


Thanks OBE1

Already spend most of my nights reading threads on Global Meltdown and am big fan of Yourself, Rockpuck, GreenBicMan etc.. have read so much about real world economics just takes so long to digest and understand without anyone to bounce ideas off. Am Brickpaver by trade so when I start talking about these sort of topics to work mates or customers I get pretty funny reactions lol

Anyways will keep on reading and one day might be able to hold my own in an economic discussion with you guys! Very interesting stuff

OK, sounds to me that we are talking about two different things now in this thread: 1) US debt being downgraded and 2) US defaulting on its debt. No. 1 is like blowing your femur into human hamburger with a stick of dynamite. Option No. 2 is like setting off a tactical nuclear weapon in a busy downtown area. Neither one is good but there is still a big difference.

I think eventually the US debt will have to be downgraded; in a sense it already has and you can see it in the way the markets have been treating the dollar. But the big question might be: Why isn't it even worse? Well, it could easily get worse. But one thing that's still holding it back is that there are a number of powerful people with money still tied up in dollars. Big banks. Soveriegn wealth funds. Drug lords. The Saudis, Japan and China. There is a lot of muscle out there weighed down with all those US wads of cash and US bonds. They simply can't move it fast, even if they want to. You can see aready China and just about all the other big players are trying to move away very tactfully so they can hold on to the value of their reserves for as long as possible while simultaneously gobbling up anything of value they can get their hands on: Rare earth metals, uranium, ariable land, water sources, petrochem stuff, precious metals, intellectual property, opium, natural gas deposits...you name it.


[edit on 12/11/09 by silent thunder]