{"id":3749,"date":"2011-08-05T23:43:12","date_gmt":"2011-08-06T03:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.synchrosecrets.com\/synchrosecrets\/?p=3749"},"modified":"2011-10-27T16:35:41","modified_gmt":"2011-10-27T20:35:41","slug":"trickster-economics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themysticalunderground.com\/?p=3749","title":{"rendered":"Trickster Economics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themysticalunderground.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/images-6.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3751\" title=\"trickster economics\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themysticalunderground.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/images-6.jpg?resize=218%2C231&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"218\" height=\"231\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On Friday afternoon, August 5, the coveted AAA credit rating the U.S. has enjoyed since 1917 was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2011\/08\/05\/downgrade-us-standard-and-poors_n_919867.html\">downgraded <\/a>by Standard and Poor\u2019s to AA+.\u00a0 This one seems to have the trickster\u2019s footprints all over it. It\u2019s like Smeagol on hallucinogenics or Wiley coyote on steroids.<\/p>\n<p>During the weeks of political theater in Washington over raising the debt ceiling, the U.S. Congress was reduced to caricature.\u00a0 The Republicans were adamant that taxes wouldn\u2019t be increased \u2013 even on millionaires, billionaires, and corporations, some of which\u00a0 don\u2019t pay any taxes at all.\u00a0 The Democrats were adamant that programs in the social safety net \u2013 Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid \u2013 wouldn\u2019t be cut and that the debt ceiling agreement would extend until 2013. In other words, that it wouldn\u2019t be revisited during the 2012 election.<\/p>\n<p>The Repugs insist that taxes shouldn\u2019t be raised on the \u201cjob creators\u201d \u2013 their catch term for the super wealthy. But the fact is that these so-called job creators aren\u2019t creating any jobs. They aren\u2019t hiring. They\u2019re sitting on their wealth and it\u2019s been growing in quantum leaps since Bush initiated these tax cuts early in his administration. Earlier this year, Obama extended the Bush tax cuts until 2013, and probably lost a major share of his progressive base. The man whose campaign was predicated on change was beginning to look like a moderate Republican.<\/p>\n<p>At any rate, the day after Congress\u2019 warring factions reached an agreement that doesn\u2019t benefit the average Joe and Joanne, the stock market dropped more than 500 points, the largest plunge since the financial meltdown in 2008. It rebounded some today, August 5, but Monday should be a wild ride because of the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by Standard and Poor\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>At first, I thought, <em>Wow, \u00a0S&amp;P gets it. <\/em>They understand that the posturing and political theater demanded a downgrade because raising taxes must be part of the debt solution. Then I read Paul Krugman\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/krugman.blogs.nytimes.com\/2011\/08\/05\/sp-and-the-usa\/\">blog.<\/a> Krugman is a Nobel prize winner in economics. His bio is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/ref\/opinion\/KRUGMAN-BIO.html\">here<\/a>.\u00a0 (Be prepared to start believing you&#8217;re an underachiever!)<\/p>\n<p>From the beginning of the stimulus package passage in 2008 to prevent economic Armageddon, he contended the stimulus package wasn\u2019t large enough, that the government needed to spend more to prevent a long-term recession. Turns out he was right and he is undoubtedly right now:<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026it\u2019s hard to think of anyone less qualified to pass judgment on America than the rating agencies,\u201d Krugman writes.\u00a0 \u201cThe people who rated subprime-backed securities are now declaring that they are the judges of fiscal policy? Really? Just to make it perfect, it turns out that S&amp;P got the math wrong by $2 trillion, and after much discussion conceded the point \u2014 then went ahead with the downgrade.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s as if the trickster is mocking everyone. <em>See? See? You guys had to muck up the works by attaching conditions and caveats to what should have been a simple raising of the debt ceiling. You avoided default at the 11<sup>th<\/sup> hour, but it didn\u2019t matter. S&amp;P downgraded your credit rating anyway and Moody and Fitch may do the same. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p>The larger question, of course, is what\u2019s the message here? With Mercury, the trickster planet, retrograde until August 25, there are apt to be more rippling shocks like this one. The conspirator part of my personality wonders if S&amp;P is in cahoots with the Repugs, who seem to want the country to slide into a double dip recession so that Obama will lose the 2012 election.<\/p>\n<p>For reference, here&#8217;s more info from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2011-08-04\/credit-rating-companies-risk-conflict-with-congress-over-u-s-s-aaa-rating.html\">Bloomberg. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday afternoon, August 5, the coveted AAA credit rating the U.S. has enjoyed since 1917 was downgraded by Standard and Poor\u2019s to AA+.\u00a0 This one seems to have the trickster\u2019s footprints all over it. It\u2019s like Smeagol on hallucinogenics &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/themysticalunderground.com\/?p=3749\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,215,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-synchronicity","category-trickster"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Trickster Economics - Welcome to The Mystical Underground<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/themysticalunderground.com\/?p=3749\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trickster Economics - Welcome to The Mystical Underground\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Friday afternoon, August 5, the coveted AAA credit rating the U.S. has enjoyed since 1917 was downgraded by Standard and Poor\u2019s to AA+.\u00a0 This one seems to have the trickster\u2019s footprints all over it. 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