[numinertyuesk]

In deference to my plutonomy thread, I'm thinking a good-old national crisis is what is needed to bring another blow to the plutocracy in America.

Yes Social Security checks will stop going out, but so will farm aid and most defense defense contractors will also not get paid.

America's credit rating decrease will mean that foreigners will start selling off American assets they hold because they would rather repatriate cash rather than deal with the risk of political instability.


But most of all... I would love to see a nuclear meltdown of both political parties in the public forum. The pent up anger and vitriol would grow more intense while independent voters sit back and watch. Corporate lobbying would probably be sidelined for a little while due to the spectacle.


But the credit rating downgrade that is sure to come will cause the price of Treasuries to go down and interest rates will jack up higher; it will also cause a big point loss on the NYSE & Nasdaq.

The tense feeling a lot of plutocrats had when the TARP bailout was rejected in Congress would start to return.



The government shutdown will severely anger the most influential electoral group---elderly people. Social Security recipients are millions upon millions of people and their size of the voting block is following them into their Social Security years.

The 3rd rail of politics will get touched no matter what.

A credit ratings downgrade will then cause Republicans to shift their focus on entitlements because all this crap over the 14% of the Federal budget on discretionary items will be a moot point... the big chunks of the budget will have to be trimmed.

And if it continues to get worse, taxes will go up. The AARP electorate will get more and more angry with each passing year.



John Boehner is about to walk his party into a political showdown that has the potential to sideline his party's base; older retired conservative Americans. When people stop getting their SS checks I wonder if the voters will listen to the excuses "it's the Democrat's fault!!!" over their anger that they can't pay their bills.

You're wrong on Social security checks; they will to be paid out during the shutdown as payments from the Social Security fund are not subject to the same budgeting process as other governmental spending.

Also, it's funny to see you speaking so cavalierly about a government shutdown when you won't suffer any immediate consequences. Congress needs to pass a stopgap bill ASAP. I've had the good fortune to have made enough money in a previous life that I have some reserves but the majority of my joes aren't in the same boat. They risk their life and limb for **** pay and are now faced with the prospect of not getting paid for their work. Many of these guys live paycheck to paycheck and any delay in paying them is going to have pretty profound consequences. This isn't cool at all.

I actually think this may happen and I agree with you ... going to be fun to watch the 24 hr news cycle as both parties sound off on each other .. good times

Yeah, it will be a real hoot.