Meet the countries in the Triple-A debt club

Money/CNN ^ | 29 jUL 2011 | Annalyn Censky

[shove_it]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Amid the contentious debt ceiling debate, the United States is at risk of being booted out of a prestigious group of countries that boast a spotless credit rating.

Only 17 countries in the world -- currently including the U.S. -- hold the highly coveted triple-A rating from both Standard & Poor's and Moody's. (S&P rates an additional three countries as triple-A, that aren't featured on Moody's list).

[HIDEK6]

Basically, white Judeo-Christian cultures.

Wonder why the culture-rich, wise, eco-friendly cultures of Africa and The Middle East aren't on the list.

Maybe it's racism.

[mamelukesabre]

the author is an idiot.

the US should’ve lost the AAA rating two years ago and will lose it regardless the debt ceiling if the rating means a damn thing. There is no way to fix the mess we are in short of a full blown collapse and depression. We are riding a runaway freight train headed for a cliff. The only thing left to do is to decide whether to bail out(and if so, at what point in time) or ride it over the cliff. bailing out will hurt and may even result in death. riding it out will certainly result in death but at a later time.

[listenhillary]

So if we don’t pass the debt limit, we don’t need to borrow any more money?

If this is like a credit score and you are set on getting out of debt, what do you care what the Credit rating is?

[mamelukesabre]

Basically, white Judeo-Christian cultures.

BS!!

Its a much smaller subset of “judea-christian” with other factors being more important. there are no jewish nations, no orthodox nations, and almost no catholic nations.

With the exception of france and singapore, it is strictly protestant nations.

But more importantly, it is nations with strong democracies and a large amount of natural resources per capita and a low degree of corruption and a strong private sector economy that does not rely on tourism or entertainment. It is nations with well developed agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and finance...and good laws applied and enforced with a good degree of fairness.

[douginthearmy]

I’d be willing to bet dollars to donuts you could walk down the streets of any AAA country and be hard pressed to find a person who goes to church every Sunday.

[Rudder]

They all appear to be peoples who came from German, Anglo-Saxon, and Nordic stock (all have common ancestry) with the exception of Singapore and possibly France (where did the French come from?)

Like Barry Manilow sang, "We make the money the whole world spends..."

[mamelukesabre]

I don’t know about europe, but there’s lots of people that go to church every sunday in america and canada. Both are on the AAA list.

[douginthearmy]

I don’t know about europe, but there’s lots of people that go to church every sunday in america and canada. Both are on the AAA list.

Possibly. I would say this is more true in the rural areas which of course is less populated so on average, it's still a small number. On any given Sunday morning, I can find plenty of people willing to go fishing with me. But I don't come here and proclaim that the key to AAA rating is a strong love of rainbow trout.

[mamelukesabre]

french are franks and normans with small amounts of gaulic, other celtish peoples and roman. franks and normans were germanic and nordic people. The french language came from the roman soldiers. Roman soldiers spoke a street dialect or uneducated dialect(call it roman ebonics) of latin that was what became the french language.

[mamelukesabre]

But I don’t come here and proclaim that the key to AAA rating is a strong love of rainbow trout.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not only would doing so be stupid, but its even stupid to make the analogy. There’s no pattern of trout fishing in the AAA nations. THere is an obvious pattern of protestant christianity in the AAA nations.

btw, i don’t even believe you can easily find people willing to fish trout with you on any given sunday. Trout fishing is fly fishing and that is a rare breed...rarer than church goers.

[douginthearmy]

Those AAA countries simultaneously experienced constitutional monarchy in England, absolute monarchism in France and the provincial monarchs in the Holy Roman Empire (Germany). They then went on to kill millions of each other in a series of the worst wars in the history of man. Fascism, Nazism and communism all were born and bred in those AAA countries.

Where do you draw the line as to what you accept your religion was responsible and what you will find other motivators for? I have to guess that when the entire history of Europe is layed on the table you will be much more creative with your crayon in drawing the lines between religion and positive/negative results.

[Rudder]

Roman soldiers spoke a street dialect or uneducated dialect(call it roman ebonics) of latin that was what became the french language.

After two years' of taking Latin, I can't blame the soldiers.

[mamelukesabre]

I think you need to read my post 5. I clearly stated that religion is not the dominant factor. But I don’t see how anyone can say it is not a factor at all. Looking at the map of those AAA countries, it seems fairly obvious to me that the protestant forms of christianity are somehow connected to a stubbornly cautious attitude towards money and politics.

you might find this interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTdEQwE6hF8&feature=related