Tough week!

Been awhile! Where have I been? Who cares? No one! Or no one reading (or not reading).

Oy. A tough few days for the Big O. First he blew it on the debt ceiling debate -- lost pretty big, then the market gyrates all week and ends with an S&P downgrade of US long-term debt and a horrific shoot down of US sailors in Afghanistan. To top it all (one would hope), the Dow drops 634 points.

Clearly something's not working.

What S&P was thinking in pulling the trigger on its downgrade is anyone's guess. Making up for its screw up on rating subprime mortgages? A new purpose in telling the truth? Who knows?

What it seems like S&P has done is suddenly tell the truth when all around are avoiding it. The elephant in the room is that US and Europe are in big big trouble. Not sure why Europe is deemed in better shape than the US -- who would you count on to pay you if either the US or Europe went belly up and you owned their bonds? The US or Europe? The US undoubtedly.

Despite all the drama and the panic, the downgrade in technical terms isn't really a huge deal. It says nothing about default. It's just, as S&P head Devan Sharma has said on the talk show circuit, it's just that the US is a bit more risky an investment than it was a year ago (or a week ago, etc).

Still.... if everyone else is maintaining the lie, at least until we can get out of the hole we're in, then why not just maintain it a little bit longer?

Anyway, Obama once again didn't help himself when he finally address the S&P downgrade and presumably the meltdown that was then occurring. All he did was refry the same old beans that he's been refrying now for months. Apparently he mercifully edited out some of the millionaire and billionaire trash talk.

He was right that congress needs to come together on a plan to cut spending and raise revenue. The only way I see that happening is to do a complete tax overhaul, specifically on the corporate side. There are too many selective tax breaks for companies that don't need them. Funny thing is though, it's not oil!!! Oil profits actually kind of suck over the long-term, and their tax breaks are small compared to others. But in any case, get rid of all the breaks, drop corporate tax rates down to 25% -- or how about below 30%?

Increasing taxes on just millionaires and billionaires just doesn't do enough. Sure, it'll raise some revenue, but its impact on our debt is basically the equivalent of a fart in a hurricane.

Let's hope this is a wake up call Obama and Congress answer.