Today's Reports Confirm That, Unfortunately, Post-crisis America

I Remember When I Was Growing Up, You Would Go To A Bank To Open A Deposit, And They'd Give You A Toaster. A Free Toaster. These Days, If You're A Company, And You Go To A Bank, They Could Easily Turn You Away! They Don't Want Your Deposits Anymore.

Once You Start Moving [market] Lower, Then You Trigger Of All Sorts Of Things. You Trigger People Who Have To Sell Because They're Over-levered. So They Sell Their Winners And Their Losers. They're Just Trying To Raise Cash. So, What You Then Get Is Spreading Malaise Throughout The Global Markets.

Investors Should Be Cautiously Positioned As The Global Economy And Markets Face Major Uncertainties. The Downgrade Will Be A Further Headwind To Growth And Job Creation In The U.s.

It Is Hard To Imagine That, Having Downgraded The Us, S & P Will Not Follow Suit On At Least One Of The Other Members Of The Dwindling Club Of Sovereign Aaas. If This Were To Materialise And Involve A Country Like France, For Example, It Could Complicate The Already Fragile Efforts By Europe To Rescue Countries In Its Periphery.

America's Downgrade May Serve As A Wakeup Call For Its Policymakers. It Is An Unambiguous And Loud Signal Of The Country's Eroding Economic Strength And Global Standing. It Renders Urgent The Need To Regain The Initiative Through Better Economic Policymaking And More Coherent Governance.