memeorandum: S&P downgrades U.S. credit rating for first time (Washington Post)

1:20 AM ET, August 6, 2011

Top Items:

Govt Officials: US Expecting S&P Downgrade — Based on ‘Serious Mistake’ in Analysis* — Two government officials tell ABC News that the federal government is expecting and preparing for bond rating agency Standard & Poor's to downgrade the rating of U.S. debt from its current AAA value.

Walter Brandimarte / Reuters:

United States loses AAA credit rating from S&P — (Reuters) - The United States lost its top-notch AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's on Friday in an unprecedented reversal of fortune for the world's largest economy. — S&P cut the long-term U.S. credit rating by one notch to AA-plus …

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Moderate Voice, ThinkProgress, Hot Air, Pajamas Media, The POH Diaries, UPI, Dow Jones Newswires, National Review, TalkLeft, CBS News, Conservatives4Palin, The Reality-Based Community, Daily Kos, The Agonist, Blazing Cat Fur, The Right Scoop and Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog

Damian Paletta / Wall Street Journal:

Math Error Fuels Fight Over Rating — A mathematical error discovered late Friday by Treasury Department officials threw into limbo, at least temporarily, plans by ratings firm Standard & Poor's to downgrade the top-notch AAA credit rating the U.S. has held for 70 years, people familiar with the matter said.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Moderate Voice, JammieWearingFool, Hot Air and Truthdig

Washington Post:

S&P downgrades U.S. credit rating for first time — Standard & Poor's announced Friday night that it has downgraded the United States credit rating for the first time, dealing a huge symbolic blow to the world's economic superpower in what was a sharply worded critique of the American political system.

Discussion: FT Alphaville, BizzyBlog, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, And So it Goes in Shreveport, The Lonely Conservative, Scared Monkeys, Hit & Run, Connecting.the.Dots, Weasel Zippers, Conservatives4Palin, AmSpecBlog and Newshoggers.com

Paul Krugman:

S&P and the USA — OK, so Standard and Poors has gone ahead with the threatened downgrade. It's a strange situation. — On one hand, there is a case to be made that the madness of the right has made America a fundamentally unsound nation. And yes, it is the madness of the right …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

MarketBeat:

S&P Downgrades U.S. Debt Rating — Press Release — Standard & Poor's took the unprecedented step of downgrading the U.S. government's “AAA” sovereign credit rating Friday in a move that could send shock waves through global. The following is a press release from Standard & Poor's:

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, Erick's blog and The Raw Story

MarketBeat:

U.S. Debt Rating in Limbo as Treasury Finds Math Mistake by S&P in Downgrade Warning — A mathematical error discovered late Friday by Treasury Department officials has thrown into limbo — at least temporarily — plans by ratings firm Standard & Poor's to downgrade the top-notch AAA credit rating …

Discussion: Felix Salmon, Pajamas Media, Balloon Juice and FT Alphaville

Tyler Durden / zerohedge.com/fullrss2.xml:

S&P Downgrades US To AA+, Outlook Negative - Full Text — United States of America Long-Term Rating Lowered To ‘AA+’ On Political Risks And Rising Debt Burden; Outlook Negative — We have lowered our long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to ‘AA+’ from ‘AAA’ and affirmed the ‘A-1+’ short-term rating.

Discussion: Doug Ross, FrumForum, Don Surber, Sky Dancing, Pajamas Media, Atlas Shrugs and ECHIDNE of the snakes

standardandpoors.com:

United States of America Long-Term Rating Lowered To ‘AA+’ Due To Political Risks, Rising Debt Burden; Outlook Negative … TORONTO (Standard & Poor's) Aug. 5, 2011—Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it lowered its long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to ‘AA+’ from ‘AAA’.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, NewsBusters.org and DealBook

John Detrixhe / Bloomberg:

S&P Cuts U.S. Rating for First Time on Deficit Reduction Pact — The U.S. had its AAA credit rating downgraded for the first time by Standard & Poor's, which slammed the nation's political process and said lawmakers failed to cut spending enough to reduce record deficits.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Gothamist, The New Civil Rights Movement and Pajamas Media

Tyler Cowen / Marginal Revolution:

A few quick thoughts on the likely pending S&P downgrade — 1. The Republican Party made a big, big mistake passing up a chance for a “grand bargain” with Obama. It's time to be a realist about revenue increases, rather than signaling ideological purity. And let's get a better rather …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Washington Post and MarketBeat

Jamie Klatell / The Hill:

Reid: S&P downgrade backs Dems' call for more revenue — Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade the nation's credit rating reinforces Democrats' call for increasing tax revenue, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Friday. — In a statement, Reid said:

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and JammieWearingFool

New York Times:
S.& P. Cuts U.S. Debt Rating for First Time

Discussion: Online NewsHour

Politics:
S&P DOWNGRADES US AAA Rating

Discussion: The Political Carnival, Patterico's Pontifications and Daily Kos

Steve Goldstein / MarketWatch:
U.S. triple-A debt rating cut by Standard & Poor's

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Daily Pundit

The Politico: U.S. credit rating downgraded

Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:
US Faces Ratings Downgrade from S&P

Discussion: Politics and Balloon Juice

Daniel Indiviglio / The Atlantic Online:
Report: S&P Preparing to Downgrade the U.S.—But Why?

Discussion: Viking Pundit

Kate Kelly / CNBC:
US Braces for Possible S&P Downgrade: Source

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, CNN and Questions and Observations

CNNMoney.com:
S&P downgrades U.S. credit rating

Discussion: Firedoglake, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, CNN and The Hill

blogs.abcnews.com:
Govt official: US expecting S&P downgrade

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Jason Cherkis / The Huffington Post:

Rick Perry's College Transcript: A Lot Of Cs and Ds … WASHINGTON — As governor of Texas, Rick Perry has pursued a controversial agenda that would gut Texas' vaunted public university system in favor of something that more closely resembles a business. — As the Washington Post reported on Thursday …

Discussion: neo-neocon, The Atlantic Online, Hot Air, Swampland, New York Magazine, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Politics, TPMDC, Iowa Caucuses, Ben Smith's Blog, Hullabaloo, Gawker and ThinkProgress

The Note:
Rick Perry's Religious Event Mired in Controversy

Discussion: The Politico, LifeNews.com, CNN, The Daily Caller and ThinkProgress

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

The Incredible Shrinking Tea Party — If there's one thing the debt ceiling battle revealed, it's that the Tea Party continues to enjoy outsized influence in Washington in general and over the GOP in particular. — So it's interesting to note that according to the internals of today's New York Times poll …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Crooks and Liars, Outside the Beltway, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Daily Kos and Washington Monthly

Yahoo! News:
Nader: ‘Almost 100 percent’ chance of a Democratic primary challenger to Obama

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Hot Air, The Political Carnival, The New Republic, CANNONFIRE and Wake up America

JSOnline:

State Fair melees produce 11 injuries, 31 arrests — By Don Walker, Mike Johnson and Breann Schossow of the Journal Sentinel — Unprecedented violence on the opening night of the Wisconsin State Fair by rampaging youths prompted extraordinary measures Friday: The head of the fair implemented …

Local News:
Click on the video link to see raw video of police and sheriff's deputies investigating the scene.

Discussion: First Draft, UrbanGrounds, The Lonely Conservative, Vox Popoli, Moonbattery, The Greenroom, The Gateway Pundit, Daily Pundit, Politics, nation.foxnews.com, Confederate Yankee, Pajamas Media, Conservative Commune and Big Government

Leary / nation.foxnews.com:

Obama's Hip-Hop BBQ Didn't Create Jobs — POLITICO EXCLUSIVE — The President's private 50th birthday bash, not listed on his public schedule: His gift to the press corps was a travel/photo lid shortly after 4 p.m., prompting what pooler Julie Mason called “general cheering in WH workspace.”

Media Matters / Media Matters for America:
Fox Nation: Obama's Hip-Hop BBQ Didn't Create Jobs

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Washington Post and Washington Monthly

Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:

Boehner's Folly Leads To S&P Downgrade of US Debt — I'm no expert, but I don't think S&P downgrading its rating of US debt will, as such, have any really big practical implications other than becoming the next political football. If you look at S&P's definition of the AA rating, after all …

Discussion: Mother Jones and HotAirPundit

Ta-Nehisi Coates / The Atlantic Online:

A Modest Proposal — Reading this... And thinking back on this, by the same writer... It occurs to me that we really need a world with more murders, more failing schools, more grocery stores with rotting vegetables, more bodegas with old milk, more teen-pregnancy, more homeless, more crack …

Sam Roberts / New York Times:
Striking Change in Bedford-Stuyvesant as the White Population Soars

Discussion: Gothamist

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Why Democrats are very nervous about Wisconsin — Publicly, Democrats are projecting great confidence about the likelihood of taking back the Wisconsin state senate in the upcoming recall elections. They claim their private polling shows them ahead or tied in all six races targeting GOPers for recall …

Discussion: Mother Jones, Daily Kos, MoJo Articles and The Mahablog

Jesse Russell / Dane101:

Wisconsin to NOLA: Rep. Pocan kicked out of ALEC event; ThinkProgress reporters accosted — State Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison), a dues paying member of the American Legislative Exchange Council, was kicked out of a corporate sponsored reception last night. Pocan is in New Orleans attending …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Raw Story and Rainforest Action Network Blog

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:

Video: They're still not listening to Rick Santelli — Want to see a microcosm of everything that's been wrong with American economic policy over the last couple of years? Watch this exchange between Ezra Klein and Rick Santelli from earlier today on MSNBC's Morning Joe.

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, Pajamas Media, American Power and Verum Serum