Do US Congressmen have an addiction to debt?

China is livid and fuming – “China, the largest creditor of the world’s sole superpower, has every right now to demand the United States address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China’s dollar assets” – and recommends the U.S. cut military (of course) spending and social welfare programs. See: “China tells U.S. ‘good old days’ of borrowing are over.”





Euro-region central bank governors are scrambling to make sure the S%26amp;P downgrade does not make the European sovereign debt situation even worse: “Euro-Area Central Banks to Hold Crisis Call”





Finally, Paul Krugman thinks ratings agencies are irrelevant:





The S%26amp;P downgrade is sure to cause a global fuss and ruckus. The agency has already had to issue another press release to clarify and correct assumptions it used to calculate growth in discretionary spending. S%26amp;P did well to issue its downgrade after all financial markets were closed Friday night. The timing allows breathing room for world markets to adjust to the news without the immediate pressure of buying and selling. Economists, policy makers, etc… also get time to dream up responses before feeling the pressures of financial markets. The disagreements and displays of political opportunism should thoroughly entertain us.





Arguably, the news of the downgrade comes as little surprise, but it does present an interesting scenario for a continuation of the dollar’s bounce from its July lows. All the bad news from the debt ceiling circus and various poor economic reports failed to push the dollar index to fresh 2011 lows. Thursday’s massive 4.8% sell-off in the S%26amp;P 500 sent the dollar soaring 1.7%. Unless the Federal Reserve pushes forward with QE3 (quantitative easing) or related jawboning at Tuesday, Aug 9th’s meeting, every near-term dollar-negative catalyst will finally be out of the way. The first natural target for the U.S. dollar is another test of overhead resistance at the 200-day moving average (DMA). A break above that point could launch a sustained relief rally.|||Let's put it this way - Reagan had his congress well in hand, as the country needed to borrow trillions to fight a terrible recession in the early 80s.





The Democrats let it go for the sake of the country and THEY had CONTROL of the House !!





The Republicans only had a majority in the senate 54-46, so it was not an easy task, but the Democrats stood down, as they should and let it happen for the sake of the country(to repeat myself).





Bush 41 bumped up the debt pretty much considering he had only 4 years, but he continued on to 12 years of republicans in the White House - not good, considering.





Along comes Clinton and after 8 years he leaves with a surplus !!





Whoa, then we get Bush43 and the roof caves in - end of story - Obama is continually in clean-up mode for the Bush 43 fiscal disaster.





Along comes the Tea party and BINGO - near-default - stalemate caused by them - debt ceiling bill is a croc - S %26amp; P's downgrades the USAs credit rating.





What more can I say !!??|||China has no business doing anything but waiting for treasury bonds to mature.


If they go unpaid, then they can squawk.|||No, just to spending other people's money.