Italy, not surprisingly, is going the way the TEA Party wanted to go here, a BBA and all. I would prefer a GAAP amendment instead for the US, no more hiding expenses "off ledger."
Greece is in the tank (with their long history of tax evasion and lax living, who would have thought it?), Spain blew their money on that financial sink hole of "green jobs," Ireland's banks played too fast and loose so it came back to bite them.
What a mess!
I just wish S&P had downgraded us last year, when it was all in the Dimwits hands. There would be no deflecting blame on the one group that was trying to AVOID this problem. As a fellow FReeper so eloquently put it, "It's like blaming the fire on the one who sounded the alarm."
Looks like panic selling starting to happen in Asia, seeing 5% down now in a couple of markets.
This should have been done last year, as you suggest. Personally, even though they have been saying for months that the US was in "downgrade territory", S&P had to find a reason. The debt ceiling debate gave them the opportunity to do the downgrade without taking any real heat. Had they done the downgrade last year, they no doubt would have been scorched in front of the world by senate and congressional sub-committee hearings.