Maybe the gold bugs have it right.
No sooner was the D.C. melodramatic debt-ceiling deal done than the European markets fell apart - with Italy looking like a much bigger and scarier version of Greece. Only then did America grasp that while Congress fiddled Rome was burning.
Strike three for the markets was the Friday evening downgrade of U.S. treasuries from AAA to AA+ by Standard & Poor's - the same firm that a few years back was happily slapping AAA on CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) of sub-prime mortgages they new little about.
These are rugged times for international investors and U.S. citizens alike. Jobs are scarce, rates on T-bills are zilch and the S&P 500, the benchmark for U.S. stocks, is below where it was a decade ago.
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