Page 15 - August 2011 News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

I don't know why they did it in the first place in 1910, the overall effect of the height restrictions an ak -- architectural thing. rich people have the view. poor people have the view. it isn't something to trade on. d.c. height restrictions are permanent. more than a century. nobody was ever going to take away that view. two years ago, in august 2011, a rare east coast earthquake rattled the washington monument. so hard that they had to close it off from visitors ever since. the earthquake cracked the marble on the washington monument. you can see sun light from inside. then torrential rain...

The possibility that the u.s. could be downgraded by one of these credit agencies. >> i think confidence has already eroded some. >> it has. >> and we have seen evidence from around the world, including a key credit agency fitch that issued a stern, stern warning. >> right. we got a taste of this in august 2011 we got close to the debt ceiling deadline then. s&p, standard & poor's downgraded it from triple a to a double a plus. that's what fitch is basically saying get your act together. fitch still lists u.s. as aaa, the highest possible quality of credit. but we should all be concerned that ...

People are spending less on cars, tv sets, appliances, they're just not charging as much as they did on credit cards because they're not feeling good about the economy. there are things that could possibly happen ahead. home sales could drop because real estate buyers and sellers would be afraid of quickly rising mortgage rates. it is possible that banks could severely slow down lending including to small businesses. that's not a good thing for the economy. keep in mind this could happen even if we reached that last-minute deal. because they're kind of kicking the can down the road, the next d...

Crisis is over and wall street responds with a rally. certainly at the opening bell. i don't know how it will close but at that opening bell, 23 minutes from now, stocks go up. martha: it may move around a bit as this deal works its way, if there is one throughout the course of the capitol hill today. stuart, thank you so much. we will see you later. >> thanks, martha. bill: right now apparently our credit rating is perfect with fitch. aaa is as perfect as any country can get in this world. that rate allows the u.s. to secure loans at lower interest rates. after august 2011 debt matter, s&p do...

Falling and the earth will erupt. >> reporter: more recently the u.s. teetered dangerously close to the debt ceiling deadline in august 2011, where a deal was struck in the 11th hour. the exact day when the u.s. government will run out of cash to cover its bills isn't certain but when the deadline hits revenue will continue to come in. lawmakers are negotiating a plan that includes a temporary fix to increase the debt ceiling though critics say what we really need isn't a band-aid fix, we need a permanent one. chris? >> alison, thank you very much. joining us for more on the gridlock in wash...