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Foreigners hold nearly half of the US debt. The Chinese, who hold an estimated $1.3 Trillion of our debt, have a big stake in our creditworthiness. Would it surprise you to learn that ... The US has been stripped of its AAA credit rating – by a Chinese company. Dagong Global Credit, the “most influential founder of China’s credit rating industry” maintains an “AA” rating on the United States with a “negative” outlook. We're less creditworthy than Luxembourg, but still ahead of South Africa. Thank you Team Obama.

This ought to get interesting.... Referring to the G20 summit in Canada next weekend, Merkel said in a videotaped message that "we are going to discuss when to quit the phase of short-term measures and go on to lasting budget consolidation." Such a move was "urgently necessary, in the view of the Europeans and particularly of Germany," she said. Obama urged the world's leading economies Friday to avoid scaling back government spending too quickly or risk derailing the global recovery. Heh heh heh.... Oh Mr. President? Yes, you Mr. Obama. Chancellor Merkel appears to have figured out the meaning of...

When elementary school kids want to escape the confines of their circumstances they pretend to be pirates, princesses, and Jedi knights. Now, with the relaxation of "mark to market" valuation rules announced yesterday by the accounting trade's self-regulatory body, our bankrupt financial institutions can escape their own reality by pretending to be solvent. The unraveling of our fairytale economy over the last few months has not yet convinced us that the time has come to put away childish things. The applause that greeted the news yesterday on Wall Street is a clear sign that we still have some growing up...