Yes, that is what happened to a German if he found himself on bad terms with the Third Reich. Yet this is what we should do to the very people who engineered this economic crisis and have made the economy worse. Printing money, bailing out the banks, keeping interest rates so low, free trade, globalization, and tax subsidies to the multi-nationals have not improved our GDP figures and never will.
Question. How on earth do the "experts" expect economic growth when we hardly produce anything domestically? Everything is practically outsourced including jobs and yet they keep talking about an economic recovery! It is a joke. They will not, I repeat will not, address the very problems that are have stifled any chance of economic growth. They will not address these problems because it is too late. Free trade, globalization, astronomical debt have all but destroyed this once great nation and now not only is America holding on by a thread of God's grace, but the whole world is too. There will not be significant domestic growth with debt that is equal to the GDP. The only reason why we had some prosperity back in 2004-2005 was because credit fueled it. But credit is not real growth, it is just a bubble and like the housing market, it will eventually burst.
Americans should not be surprised by S&P's downgrade. We were expecting this. And it will continue to get worse. You might see a few glimmers of hope that will rally the DOW but it will be short lived. I said before America no longer has the "biggest balls", you know because everyone wants to be top dog. No nation has the biggest balls with the biggest debt.......that is for sure. And it certainly appears that the whole world is drowning in sovereign debt. Italy, Spain, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, even the British are having debt problems and they are not tied into the Euro. Credit markets will continue to tighten and you will see more and more sovereign default and more and more bail-outs and bond buying. Credit default swaps will rise sharply and gold will reach record/historic highs that will make you poop your pants!
But it is business as usual and your "noble" leaders will continue to reassure you that all is well on the "eastern front" as not to cause a panic, meanwhile the whole world is falling like dominos and things continue to get worse.