By now you’re all probably aware that S&P downgraded the country’s credit rating from AAA to AA+ with a negative outlook. This is the first time in our country’s history that such a thing has ever happened. It didn’t happen during the Great Depression, it didn’t happen during the stagflation of the seventies…never.
Now, several weeks ago, S&P stated that, unless we signed into law a plan that cut $4 trillion and “[implemented] medium-term fiscal consolidation policy” there was a good probability of a downgrade.
Cut, Cap and Balance, passed by the House, was the only such plan. It never got through the Senate thanks to Harry Reid and co., and President Obama kept calling for tax increases even as his own party abandoned them trying to get a compromise taken care of for the debt ceiling. Thanks, guys.
Obviously, we got to this point thanks to the work of many administrations and many more Congresses, but boy was the ball ever dropped on this one.
Remember, for those of us still in college, this carries a very real impact. Interest rates are going to go up and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw another recession–just in time for the ’12s (and possibly others further down the line) to graduate. Now, add to that a youth unemployment rate around 20% or so, an internship supply that’s drying up as people grab them because they can’t find a real job…The usual senior year scramble for a job isn’t going to get any easier. It’s probably going to get a whole lot worse.
–Sterling C. Beard
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