S&P rating: ‘Outrageous’, ‘nothing good to say’  —  Outrage over Standard & Poor's downgrade of the United States' credit rating extended to both sides of the political aisle on Sunday.  —  Steve Forbes, CEO of Forbes Inc. and a former Republican presidential contender …

What Happened to Obama?  —  Drew Westen is a professor of psychology at Emory University and the author of “The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.”  —  Atlanta  —  IT was a blustery day in Washington on Jan. 20, 2009, as it often seems to be on the day of a presidential inauguration.

Tea Party Nation: The left's killed “a billion people”  —  THIENSVILLE, Wis. — The founder of Tea Party Nation claimed liberal ideology is responsible for “a billion” deaths over the last century during a raucous rally here Saturday in support of one of the six Republican state senators facing a recall election Tuesday.

London riots: Dozens injured after Tottenham violence  —  Clasford Stirling, a resident of Tottenham for 32 years, said the area looked like a battlefield  —  More than 40 people have been arrested after rioting saw police attacked, buildings looted and vehicles set alight in Tottenham, north London.

If we are to survive the looming catastrophe, we need to face the truth  —  The idea that a capitalist economy can support a socialist welfare state is collapsing before our eyes, says Janet Daley.  —  Getting it right: the Tea Party recognised where America's policies were heading

Pressing All the Buttons for a Panic Attack  —  BRADLEY ALFORD, a money manager in Atlanta, just hit the panic button.  —  No, really.  Mr. Alford just hit the key on his computer that initiates the Wall Street equivalent of the nuclear option: Sell everything.

Downgrade Blues  —  BARACK OBAMA must wonder sometimes if his luck has run out.  —  Maybe he used it all up in 2008.  —  “Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”  —  “When I said, ‘Change we can believe in,’ I didn't say, ‘Change we can believe in tomorrow,’ ” he told an audience at a Chicago fund-raiser on Wednesday.

Origins of the debt showdown  —  This article was reported by Lori Montgomery, Paul Kane, Brady Dennis, Alec MacGillis, David Fahrenthold, Rosalind Helderman, Felicia Sonmez and Dan Balz.  It was written by Dennis, MacGillis and Montgomery.  —  In mid-January, newly installed …

Sunday Reflection: Why the GOP should give Obama the higher taxes he wants  —  Well, the debt deal is behind us, but it's clear that the White House wants more taxes.  Instead of fighting this head-on, the GOP might want to think about future ways of giving President Obama what he says he wants.

Hugh Carey, Who Led Fiscal Rescue of New York City, Is Dead at 92  —  Hugh L. Carey, the governor who helped rescue New York from the brink of financial collapse in the 1970s and tamed a culture of ever-growing spending, died Sunday at his summer home on Shelter Island.  He was 92

In this grave crisis, the world's leaders are terrifyingly out of their depth  —  Ineffectual: an emergency telephone conference among the G7 finance ministers feels as relevant as a Bourbon family get-together in the summer of 1789  —  Certain years have gone down in history as great global turning points …