Ok, I am not an economist, or even that good with money, but the fact that two of the biggest companies in America have had their debt ratings reduced to junk bond status doesn't seem all that good. From the New York Times:
General Motors and Ford Motor lost their investment grade ratings Thursday, pushing two of corporate America's biggest borrowers into the ranks of junk bonds and rattling the financial markets with the message that the collective fortunes of the remaining two domestically owned automakers have sunk to their lowest points yet.So this is the Bush economy....are junk bonds one of the choices for Bush's private accounts?
The downgrading by Standard & Poor's, the credit agency, reflects the inability of G.M. and Ford to make enough cars that people will buy without $5,000 rebates and other sales incentives, as well as worries that the two automakers may not emerge anytime soon from their troubles, starting with eroding earnings and sliding sales.
S.& P. said it was especially concerned about declining sales of the large sport utility vehicles that Ford and G.M. have depended on for profit, particularly as Japanese automakers step up their interest in the pickup truck market.
