I just clicked on the Yahoo article to see what misinformation they'd have about the credit downgrade the United States just received. I must say I was a bit surprised with what I saw:
First quote I liked:
S&P, which covered itself in a substance other than glory during the mortgage crisis, may have a poor record and strange methodology when it comes to sovereign ratings.
Perhaps Yahoo is aware of the enormous errors S&P made in its ratings leading up to the crash of 2008.
This analysis is spot on:
Recent events have sapped the agency's confidence that the government can and will do what is necessary to align revenues with spending commitments. And it's difficult to escape the conclusion that America's credit rating was intentionally sabotaged by Congressional Republicans.
bold, mine. Again...this TRUTH needs to be shouted from the rooftop and yes, it needs to be shouted by President Obama. It's not political, it's accurate.
This paragraph is the last I'll quote, 'cause I'm not sure of the fair-use rules, but I love the way this is written and I love that this is the main-street wisdom that can and should dominate the electoral landscape in 2012:
It has long been obvious to all observers -- to economists, to politicians, to anti-deficit groups, to the ratings agencies -- that closing fiscal gaps will require tax increases, or the closure of big tax loopholes, or significant tax reform that will raise significantly larger sums of tax revenue than the system does now. Today, taxes as a percentage of GDP are at historic lows. Marginal rates on income and investments are at historic lows. Corporate tax receipts as a percentage of GDP are at historic lows. Perhaps taxes don't need to rise this year or next, but they do need to go up in the future.
again, bold mine.
The rest of the article does a good of summing up the entire situation. I'm impressed with the writing and the accuracy of the article, if you get a chance give it a read and perhaps drop the author a note of appreciation. It's kinda rare to see a (somewhat) mainstream media outlet to get such a complex situation so correct.