Jim Rogers on the Debt Ceiling and Upcoming Raw Deal, Rick Santelli Tells It Like It Is on Spending Cuts, and Miller and Coors Soon to Leave Minnesota?

The impeccable Jim Rogers is out with a great interview with RT.com in which he talks about what I have been bitching about for a few days now: Why the hell did Moody's wait so long to downgrade the U.S. credit rating?

"The U.S. rating should have been downgraded years ago.  I don't know why they are just now getting around to it but we know that the rating agencies don't have much of a clue about anything.  They got everything wrong in subprime.  They got everything wrong for a long time.  I don't know why they don't understand what's going on."

There it is in simple language folks.  Moody's is a joke, they just downgraded 7 Portuguese banks today and act like they are pointing out things nobody knows already.  At least one rating agency, which happens to be independent of course, gets it right:

JUPITER, Florida (July 15, 2011) — Weiss Ratings, an independent rating agency of U.S. financial institutions and sovereign debts, has downgraded the debt of the United States government from C to C-minus.

Here is another Jim Rogers interview with Fox Business from a few days ago discussing the debt ceiling:

"They will probably raise the debt ceiling and announce some kind of wonderful deal, which they will then promptly ignore just as they did the Gramm-Rudman.  The United States is not going to close down. It might be good for the world if the United States government closed down for a while but I can not see that happening.  Something will happen, things will get better, but then in 6 months or a year we will be worse again.

Mark the man's words, he is a legend for a reason.

Speaking of legends, Rick Santelli is back actually calling for a U.S. default on CNBC while also calling out Barney Frank and the BLS creation of fake jobs through the birth/death formula.

And of course Santelli asks the big question on cutting spending that none of the children in Congress want to answer:

If not now, when?! If not now, when!? If not now, when?!

Though the Minnesota state government shutdown seems to be coming to end, the real reason behind the solution may have been revealed:

The state shutdown means Miller-Coors will have to stop selling beer in Minnesota. State officials have told the company it must come up with a plan to remove its 39 brands of beer from shelves, and bars in a matter of days.
The company failed to renew its brand license with the state before the shutdown. Each alcohol brand needs to pay a $30 brand license fee, which is good for three years.
Without the license Miller-Coors cannot sell beer in the state.

I guess the martini lovers in Minnesota's General Assembly are outflanked by beer lovers. Still, the fact that Minnesota, and most states I imagine, have laws like that is idiotic beyond words.  Why not just have a bureaucrat hold the can/bottle up to my mouth when I wanna drink?  Think of all the jobs that will be created!  Paul Krugman and Brad Delong are probably fidgeting with excitement over that type of idea with job creation and social engineering rolled into one.

I will end with a very simple and straightforward chart on how prominent algorithms are in modern trading

Oh and here is Ron Paul first, but hopefully not last, campaign video:

This may only be a taste of what's to come.