Warren Buffett says US debt deserves "quadruple A" rating

[The U.S., which was cut Aug. 5 to AA+ from AAA at S&P, merits a] quadruple A [rating].

~Warren Buffett, chairman, Berkshire Hathaway, Bloomberg TV, August 5, 2011

Ben Stein says it's bad out there, but the forecasting accuracy of S&P is questionable

I think what we're seeing is the chickens coming home to roost. We had excessively large tax cuts in the Bush-era, I don't blame them for cutting taxes in the early stages of his administration, but once the economy recovered fully, he should've raised taxes again. We've had wild overspending under Mr. Obama without any clear results from it. So, the combination of too low taxes, too much spending, has just been a disaster and the disaster is getting worse.

We have a hundred percent ratio, roughly a hundred percent, of the debt to the GDP. That has not happened since 1945. After that, we got rid of that enormous ratio by inflation and by the economy growing and the deficit stopped. The deficits are stretching out as far as the eye can see. There's no end to them in sight. So, it is a worrisome situation.

On the other hand, to strike a little lighter note, in terms of the accuracy of the S&P's predictions, they're also the ones who said there were no problems with the mortgage-backed securities. So, we don't know whether there as good at forecasting these things as they say.

~Ben Stein, actor, author and economist, WSJ's Markets Hub, April 19, 2011

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac removed from S&P 500

Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. [FRE] will be removed from the S&P 500 after the close of trading on Wednesday, September 10. Its place in the S&P 500 will be taken by Salesforce.com Inc. [CRM], which will be added after the close of trading on Friday, September 12. As of today's close of trading Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. had a market capitalization of approximately $614 million, whereas the minimum market cap a company must maintain in order to be eligible for admission to the index is $5 billion.

-- Federal National Mortgage Association [FNM] will be removed from the S&P 500 after the close of trading on Wednesday, September 10. Its place in the S&P 500 will be taken by S&P MidCap 400 constituent Fastenal Co. [FAST], which will be added after the close of trading on Friday, September 12.

~ Standard & Poor's, "Standard & Poor's Announces Changes to U.S. Indices," PRNewswire, September 9, 2008

S&P credit analyst: "There's leverage everywhere"

There's leverage everywhere -- whether at corporations or broker dealers or hedge funds or private-equity funds. It sort of feels like something's got to give.

~ Tanya Azarchs, senior credit analyst who follows U.S. banks and brokers at Standard & Poor's Corp., "As Funds Leverage Up, Fears of Reckoning Rise. Fed and SEC Question Wall Street on Policies;'A Mockery' of Margin," The Wall Street Journal, April 30, 2007, by Randall Smith and Susan Pulliam