Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on Friday announced the downgrade status of seven countries including France, Austria, Italy and Spain.

With France and Austria losing their triple-A status’ analysts worry that the country will have a hard time fighting off a worsening debt crisis.

In worse condition was Italy who was lowered two notches to a BBB+ rating from their former A rating. Spain also nearly fell out of A rating territory with its rating falling from AA- to A.

Also downgraded by two notches were Portugal and Cyprus, while the S&P also cut ratings for Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia.

The downgrade comes at a time when Greece’s massive debt has brought the country to the brink of collapse with talks on Friday heating to a near boiling point.

In the meantime Germany was able to maintain the coveted AAA level. As I reported earlier in the week Germany has seen a market boom in recent years and the country’s top company’s continue to look for new employees at record hiring rates.  In fact many of the world’s top company’s have continued to scout out Germany workers for expansion purposes. German unemployment is currently at an all-time low and conditions continue to look promising in the country.

Do you think France and the rest of the countries listed in this report deserved to receive a Standard & Poor’s downgrade?

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Standard & Poor’s Downgrades France, 8 Other Countries is a post from: The Inquisitr

Congress’ supercommittee has failed in its bid to cut a government debt that stands at an eye-watering $15 trillion.

With deep-running political divisions over spending and taxation, Republicans and Democrats failed to reach an agreement to cut $1.2 trillion of the national debt on Monday. As a result, U.S. and European stock prices were sent tumbling.

And of course, it goes without saying that both sides were quick to blame the other.

President Barack Obama said that a refusal by the GOP to raise taxes on the rich had formed an impassable obstacle to reaching a deal. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Republicans had “never found the courage to ignore the tea party extremists” and “never came close to meeting us half way.” Republican Senator Jon Kyl was also accused of wrecking the deal.

The blame game worked both ways, however. GOP Senator Pat Toomey oversaw a Republican offer during the talks, yet said:

“Unfortunately, our Democratic colleagues refused to agree to any meaningful deficit reduction without $1 trillion in job-crushing tax increases.”

And GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry used the result to attack Obama, and by the sounds of it managed a whole sentence without stumbling. Bravo sir:

“It’s amazing to what lengths he (Obama) will go to avoid making tough decisions.”

Just listen to this mob, taking every opportunity to score cheap political points. It’s almost as though there’s some huge election-style event next year or something.

Congress’ public rating was below 20-percent approval in numerous polls before this announcement. Expect that to dip even lower in the coming days.

Supercommittee Fails to Cut $1.2 Trillion Deficit is a post from: The Inquisitr

The U.S.’s credit rating will be downgraded again before 2011 is out, Bank of America Merrill Lynch economists have predicted.

Back in the first week of August, America’s ‘AAA’ rating was cut to an ‘AA+,’ by credit agency Standard & Poor’s. Yet the new ‘AA+’ rating is not infallible, according to a report filed on Friday.

The Bank of America Merrill Lynch paper said there is little hope of a breakthrough for the congressional “super committee” on deficit reduction. The group was formed to locate $1.5 trillion in deficit cuts over the next ten years by November 23rd, 2011. Ethan Harris, North American economist at BoA Merrill, writes:

“The ‘not-so-super’ deficit commission is very unlikely to come up with a credible deficit-reduction plan. The committee is more divided than the overall Congress. The credit rating agencies have strongly suggested that further rating cuts are likely if Congress does not come up with a credible long-run plan. Hence, we expect at least one credit downgrade in late November or early December when the super committee crashes.”

The U.S. has not been alone in losing its shiny ‘AAA’ rating, with Spain, Italy, Greece, Ireland, and Portugal all downgraded in 2011.

The current S&P outlook on the U.S. rating is ‘negative,’ and S&P has warned it “could lower the long-term rating to ‘AA’ within the next two years if we see that less reduction in spending than agreed to, higher interest rates, or new fiscal pressures during the period result in a higher general government debt trajectory than we currently assume in our base case.”

There are five credit agencies that evaluate a country’s credit worthiness, including Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings. Both still rate the U.S. ‘AAA,’ but Moody’s also has a ‘negative’ outlook.

U.S. Credit Rating Could Be Downgraded Again Soon [We're All Doomed] is a post from: The Inquisitr

You would have had to been living with your head buried deep in the sand over the last month not to have heard about the “debt ceiling” crisis facing the United States that was only averted at the last moment by both parties and the White House.

However one of the other big fears to arise out of this debt ceiling crisis was whether or not the United States’ credit rating would be downgraded by the various credit rating agencies like Standard & Poor’s (S&P), with many worried that if it was downgraded the effect on the U.S. could be really bad.

Well that scenario has come about as S&P issued a press release late on Friday announcing that they were downgrading the credit rating for the U.S.

From their press release

– 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.

– We have also removed both the short- and long-term ratings from CreditWatch negative.

– The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics.

– More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011.

– Since then, we have changed our view of the difficulties in bridging the gulf between the political parties over fiscal policy, which makes us pessimistic about the capacity of Congress and the Administration to be able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal consolidation plan that stabilizes the government’s debt dynamics any time soon.

– The outlook on the long-term rating is negative. We could lower the long-term rating to ‘AA’ within the next two years if we see that less reduction in spending than agreed to, higher interest rates, or new fiscal pressures during the period result in a higher general government debt trajectory than we currently assume in our base case.

via Wall Street Journal

Members of the Tea Party in the United States believed that nothing bad would happen if the US defaulted on their debt payments or if the country’s credit rating got downgraded. Well I guess we’ll get to see whether they were right or if in fact this downgrading will indeed hit the country hard, causing further hardship.

U.S. ‘AAA’ credit rated downgraded by S&P, let the disaster scenarios begin. is a post from: The Inquisitr

No really, Kimberly Broffman, get off of their lawns.

Kimberly, a 6-year-old in the custody of her grandparents, is facing eviction by local law enforcement because her grandparents live in a retirement community. The child has lived in the house her whole life, as her mother is unable to care for her due to unspecified drug problems. Now authorities plan to remove the girl from the only home she’s ever known and place her in foster care with strangers due to a homeowners association policy.

Kimberly’s grandparents, Jimmy and Judie Stottler, have been unable to sell their home and move elsewhere due to the housing market crash. The Stottlers have even lowered the price from $225,000 to $129,000, willing to get completely hosed on the move just to keep their family intact, but no one is buying. The battle has been going on for several years, the better portion of Kimberly’s life, but the Stottlers are of limited resources to fight the situation.

Check out the MSNBC video below, where neighbors of the Stottman’s advocate for tearing the family apart. One woman, who looks like she’s about to start talking boot-straps, cruelly states that Kimberly should be ejected from her home. And the president of the homeowners association looks positively gleeful as he discusses the prospect of getting sheriffs to forcibly remove the small girl. He says in response to a question about who will take Kimberly:

“No, the sheriff will. I will merely be the President of the Board who is trying to enforce the policies of our association that she agreed to when she moved in.”

Florida community wants to evict 6-year-old is a post from: The Inquisitr

Times are tough, banks are failing, auto manufacturers are going under, people are out of work, houses are being foreclosed on.  In a sure sign that times of tough, a new piggy bank has hit the market.  A stocking stuffer for depressed traders and bankers.  We think it will be big this holiday season just don’t show it to PETA.

Funny Pic: The Financial Crisis Piggy Bank is a post from: The Inquisitr

No one knows exactly how hard the economy will fall, or whether the Government will be able to save the day, but just in case, here’s some handy tips for surviving the global financial meltdown.

Cash is good…really good.

The moment you see a run on the banks, particularly your bank, you’re in a serious trouble. The best way to protect yourself is to keep a cash reserve. In the absolute worst case scenario, cash may be worthless, but for the rest of the time, particularly if plastic loses value, folding cash is where it’s at. If you’ve got extensive savings, look at keeping a portion at home, or somewhere else safe. Insurance schemes such as the FDIC only cover you to $100,000, and even then, in a full blown crisis it may mean nothing. Have a reserve handy, just in case.

Stockpile food

Just in case, it pays to have a reasonable supply of food handy, particularly pre-packaged food that doesn’t require cooking. Even if we don’t see anarchy, power utilities with debt burdens risk going under, so essential service provision may face disruption.

Be prepared for job loss

Even the best case scenario now has the US economy heading south at least to some extent, with a flow on effect globally. Very few industries will be spared, and your job could be a risk, no matter how safe you think you might be. You need to be prepared for the worse so your family doesn’t starve.

Self protection

Be aware that rises in unemployment usually result in increased levels of crime. Even if you manage to keep well, civil society may deteriorate. I’d never recommend anyone own a gun, but certainly you should consider self protection in case things get really bad. I already know where to find the golf clubs just in case.

Conclusion

This isn’t an exhaustive list of things you need to consider, but as the bailout package remains delayed, and now with China cutting off money, things don’t look good. We may not see another great depression in our time, but just in case, do as the scouts do, and be prepared.

If there’s anything you’d recommend that should be added to this list, live a comment.

Basic tips on surviving a global financial meltdown is a post from: The Inquisitr

While the aesthetics are pleasing, Leslie Poston at Mashable isn’t hot on the service, and you can read her review here, but we thought we’d suggest another startup idea.

Introducing Better BillShrink.

(feel free to copy the idea, although if you turn it in to a startup, we want some equity ).

Here’s how it works

ZOMG I’ve got credit card debt. What do you recommended?

But the interwebs, how am I suppose to buy things online?

But I can’t afford to pay off my existing cards!

What about that shiny new gadget I want now but can’t afford?

Disclosure: this post does not equate to formal financial advice, nor am I licensed to give it. Consult with a financial specialist, psychiatrist, or Poker professional for better advice.

Better BillShrink, an easy idea for a startup is a post from: The Inquisitr