Monday So Far:

At this point, roughly mid-day,

- The DOW is down 500 points;
- Gold rose more than $70 an ounce;

And who is to blame?

Mr Obama & Minions says that the TEA Party is to blame (I was certain he'd go for Bush):

David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Obama, used the exact same phrase in dubbing the credit rating drop the “tea party downgrade,” as Democrats tried to position themselves as reasonable, pragmatic leaders and conservative Republicans as irresponsible ideologues who caused the downgrade by refusing to accept any new taxes.

Barney Frank blames our military (which, read correctly, is himself and DC):

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee says the biggest reason the United States is seeing its credit downgraded is that it spends too much money being "the military policemen of the world."

Rep. Barney Frank tells CBS's "The Early Show" that reining in defense spending is "going to be my mantra" for the next few months.

China blames DC spending and fiscal irresponsibility:

If the world's largest debtor kept eating May's grain in April and kept robbing Peter to pay Paul without fiscal discipline, eagerness to balance budget or effective efforts to boost sluggish economy, how can the creditors keep lending without doubts?

What else is happening?

- The S&P extends its US downgrade to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc;
- Moody's is now threatening to do the same thing: AAA to AA+;
- S&P itself says there a good chance the US will be downgraded AGAIN;
- Gas prices are up despite Mr Obama having opened reserves (a stupid thing to do);

And what of the future?

It's not happy. The One is not looking quite so god-like these days.

It's just like an alcoholic, ladies and gentlemen: day-by-day.

BZ