Standard & Poor's Downgrades U.S. Debt Rating

[Kaslo]

S&P Downgraded Fannie and Freddie. Aka, if you have student loans your interest rate is about to be jacked. Also, stocks lost 4% today. Lost all the gains this year plus some in a 72 hour period.

Good thing my student loans weren't with them.

[Olo401]

Good thing I refinanced & consolidated my student loans from 8% variable to 2.75% fixed rate.

[Senoska]

Christ. Also yeah, trading isnt over. I had CNN opened from this morning. Its at 6% right now with no indication of slowing down.
1: I mean stocks, S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq. Not including foreign markets which had similar losses.
2: I'm aware. But still, oh fuck.
3: You're correct.

[solanis]

I've been short the market for over a year, so this is pretty much the best case scenario for me personally. feels good to watch the world burn.

[Olo401]

So basically you're one of the scumbags banking on everyone else's misery.

[solanis]

there's nothing wrong with shorting the market. I definitely am profiting from this because of smart investment choices on my part. get mad.

[Talint]

This disconnect is amazing.

S&P: "Yeah, your republicans are batshit crazy with the zero revenues thing. That's why we're downgrading you."
Republicans: "OBAMA, IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT YOU DEMOCRAT!"

[archibaldcrane]

So basically you're one of the scumbags banking on everyone else's misery.

People shorting the market are the only people with a real interest in companies not falsifying earnings reports and such. They are a worthwhile check on the industry, considering that it is usually a significant risk to do so (stock market rises over time).

[Demosthenes11]

is sallie mae owned by fannie/freddie?

[Meresgi]

I'm still in college so I don't think I can consolidate my loans, awesome, looks like im up "Fucked in the ass with your own paddle" creek. (It's a real creek, look it up)

[Headspace]

Can't wait for grad school next year :/

[Senoska]

Markets closed.

http://i52.tinypic.com/2r5fej8.png

Moody downgrade to follow? That'll be real fun.

edit: lol S&P

[Correction]

is sallie mae owned by fannie/freddie?

No, they're all independent of each other. Learn more:

[Caiyuo]

Sorry if this is redundant or obvious, but are the dips in the stock market directly caused by the credit downgrade? Is it only a reflection of that or is it a combination of things? This seems like the most obvious question and I don't know if I'm missing it because it's apparent to everyone else, but the confusion over how serious the downgrade is and whether it's deserved seems unequal to the consequences that retirement funds are suddenly facing.

[guartz]

Liberals are supposed to care and have empathy with people. They defend those who cannot defend themselves and they defend those who suffer because they can identify with them and use perspective. This is what makes us different to those libertarian faggots and the conservative nearderthals. Both of these groups worship ideas for their own sake, one worships the invisible hand, and the other worships some angry jewish god from the desert. They have principles for idiosyncratic and tribal reasons. What is supposed to make us better is that our ideas do not exist for their own sake, but they exist because that's what people need and want.

“There is no social entity with a good that undergoes some sacrifice for its own good. There are only individual people, different individual people, with their own individual lives. Using one of these people for the benefit of others, uses him and benefits the others. Nothing more.” - Robert Nozick

Nozick just really annihilates that moral argument of yours, Kuya. Now, let me explain the invisible hand to you, this explanation requires some participation. Go outside, take a look at all those people bustling about, take a look at all those buildings and imagine all the materials and talent that was required to put all that together. Now image all the resources it takes to keep all of this ticking, the constant delivery of supplies and food stuffs, clothes and parts. It's really like a force of nature isn't it? I mean, all of this and much much more, it all stems from some guy somewhere who was looking to make a few bucks.
.

[Demosthenes11]

“There is no social entity with a good that undergoes some sacrifice for its own good. There are only individual people, different individual people, with their own individual lives. Using one of these people for the benefit of others, uses him and benefits the others. Nothing more.” - Robert Nozick

Nozick just really annihilates that moral argument of yours, Kuya. Now, let me explain the invisible hand to you, this explanation requires some participation. Go outside, take a look at all those people bustling about, take a look at all those buildings and imagine all the materials and talent that was required to put all that together. Now image all the resources it takes to keep all of this ticking, the constant delivery of supplies and food stuffs, clothes and parts. It's really like a force of nature isn't it? I mean, all of this and much much more, it all stems from some guy somewhere who was looking to make a few bucks.
.

dont bring more retarded ass bullshit into this. libertarianism is a joke to most people with an education. its not because "we dont understand" or "we hate liberty," it's because its a fucking joke to think it can/would work. Everyone going after his/her selfish wants only is a disaster. invisible hand man adam smith writes about the dangers of pure capitalism himself.

Libertarianism is a joke. A joke libertarianism is - HOLY SHIT THIS QUOTE DEMOLISHES WHAT YOU JUST SAID

[guartz]

That's right Demo, the obvious solution is to have a committee of a handful of people who will manage the entire economy and do it fairly. This is a flawless plan and people with education and smarts agree with it.


edit:
AND AND

there will be no more poor people, because banks make jobs hard and we need to rise up and make jobs easier.

[RKenshin]

“There is no social entity with a good that undergoes some sacrifice for its own good. There are only individual people, different individual people, with their own individual lives. Using one of these people for the benefit of others, uses him and benefits the others. Nothing more.” - Robert Nozick

Nozick just really annihilates that moral argument of yours, Kuya.

That quote is pretty poor at counter-arguing much of anything.

It's overly an simplistic metaphor, and an incredibly short-sighted of the big picture and purpose behind that idea.

The idea of a more socialistic society is for everyone to contribute (not just one person/few people) towards the greater good, for services that everyone (if not the overwhelming majority of people) can benefit from.

Not every single person benefits directly from every single tax dollar allocation, but to say that people are 'being used and not benefiting at all' is just inane. Whether it's through social security, public education, student loans, national security, food/drug/water safety, environmental control, FDIC insurance, roads/highways/bridges, food/gas subsidies, medicare, etc... you're getting your parts of the pie some where. Not everyone will benefit from all of everything, and as such some will benefit more than others, but the idea is that the majority will benefit in some way.

That quote wouldn't even make sense if it actually portrayed the idea accurately. "There are only individual people, different individual people, with their own individual lives. Using all of these people for the benefit of all these people, uses all the people and benefits all the people. Nothing more." Completely different meaning when it's actually describing the idea correctly, isn't it?

[guartz]

That quote is pretty poor at counter-arguing much of anything.

It's overly an simplistic metaphor, and an incredibly short-sighted of the big picture and purpose behind that idea.

The idea of a more socialistic society is for everyone to contribute (not just one person/few people) towards the greater good, for services that everyone (if not the overwhelming majority of people) can benefit from.

Not every single person benefits directly from every single tax dollar allocation, but to say that people are 'being used and not benefiting at all' is just inane. Whether it's through social security, public education, student loans, national security, food/drug/water safety, environmental control, FDIC insurance, roads/highways/bridges, medicare, etc... you're getting your part of the pie some where. Not everyone will benefit from all of everything, and as such some will benefit more than others, but the idea is that the majority will benefit in some way.

That quote wouldn't even make sense if it actually portrayed the idea accurately. "There are only individual people, different individual people, with their own individual lives. Using all of these people for the benefit of all these people, uses all the people and benefits all the people. Nothing more." Completely different meaning when it's actually describing the idea correctly, isn't it?

Ha, coincidentally I lifted the quote from Nozick's book titled Anarchy, State and Utopia and in that book Nozick makes quite a compelling argument against your rebuttal. It was mainly a critic of distributive justice proposed by Rawls who shares Liberal principles with Kuya, that is, an argument from a ethical perspective. Secondly, you make huge assumptions that public works such as roads/environmental controls/drug safety would be completely absent minus a distributive tax system. These things come about because there is a demand for them in a market society, not because they exist and hence market society is possible.

[Kerberoz]

I've been shorting prefabs ever since Eden Prime.

Godsdamnit, now I'm reading all your posts in his voice.