So-called sovereign debt crises engulf Iceland, Ireland, Greece......

[marmar]

..... now threatening Italy, Spain, Portugal. Austerity imposed on the UK, and now coming to the U.S., where the national credit rating is being threatened by debt-limit drama. And at the center of it all -- these credit ratings agencies whose B.S. positive ratings of mortgage securities were a key part of the financial meltdown.

:tinfoilhat: Is is just me or does this all seem a bit too choreographed?

[villager]

1. unrecc'd by those who imagine "austerity is for the little people..."

"...but certainly won't affect me!"

[socialist_n_TN]

2. Well anybody with eyes and half a brain

could see it coming. They fucked it all up and now we've got to pay for it. Pay MORE for it I should say. Anybody wonder why I'm a Marxist? This fucked up system has GOT to go. :mad:

[The Big Vetolski]

3. It's not just you, man. History repeats, again, sort of. The rich screw

up. They don't want to pay for it. They've already squeezed the poor for all they are worth, so now they will squeeze what are commonly called the middle or professional classes, or, in Marxist terminology, the bourgoisie.

IOW, they're going to screw over the very people for whom the system has at least sort of worked until now. Those people don't like to be squeezed; they're not really used to it. Shit, the rich are even laying off the police!

This is the stuff revolutions are made of, dude. And the rich won't even see it coming. Did you not just make an OP on "let them eat cake" illustrating just how out of touch the uber-wealthy are? They ARE out of touch. They don't get it, because they CAN'T.

They are so doomed.

[malaise]

4. Add Jamaica

We've failed two IMF tests and the government won't even tell us.
The IMF is demanding massive cuts to the public sector and the wage freeze will kill us.

[jwirr]

6. I was not aware that Jamaica was getting hit. We have family there.

Some are middle class and others are very poor. The poor are living in some very violent areas and they are the ones I am most worried about. Keep us posted.

[Imajika]

5. The lesson here is, don't go so deeply into debt...

..that slimy credit ratings agencies have your country by the balls.

People should live within their means and so should their governments.