Blue Monday

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Rachel gave a graphic portrait of Monday's stock market meltdown.  She pointed out that while S&P downgraded the U.S. as a credit risk, most of the money in the market fled private companies and went into U.S. government securities, the very T-bills that were downgraded, because they are the safest investment in the world.  She also pointed out that the S&P action was roundly criticized, and based on political, not financial considerations.  But she made the case that this political punditry had some basis in reality--that not only had the Tea Party insisted they were ready and eager to default, but all the R presidential candidates save one are saying the same thing, and the GOPer Senate leader promised that holding the debt ceiling as hostage (which were his words) created a "new template" for future debt ceiling debates.  So the Republican establishment as well as its radical faction has promised to do what S&P said they feared would happen.  Rachel's analogy was that the U.S. must pay more for its fire insurance because it has an arsonist in the family.  That arsonist is the GOP. She closes this opening segment with the reason the market sold off private companies stock as fear that nobody seems capable of reviving the U.S. economy, of creating jobs for Americans.    

Earlier on MSNBC, Lawrence O'Donnell gave a spirited analysis of why the S&P action was wrong, the product of a "Confederacy of Dunces that is S&P," and was proven wrong by the market moving to Treasury bills as the safest investment.  Unfortunately, the complete video of this opening isn't posted at MSNBC and the transcript isn't available yet.  But it's worth a look and/or a read when it is available.