Page 31 - Sam Higgins News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

the single deadliest day in our nation's longest running war. it's monday, august 8th, 2011. i'm chuck todd. quite the packed monday. let's get right to my first read of the morning and it starts with the downgrade. economic uncertainty could be the greatest obstacle for president obama's re-election campaign and standard & poor's decision to downgrade the country's credit rating for the first time ever doesn't help that anxiety. here's s&p's managing director, john chachambers, on the substa of their decision. >> we have a negative outlook, which speaks to a longer time frame, fro...

the children, when mom is on the front lines. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. this was a dark day for the nation's finances and for millions of americans with a financial stake in the markets. the very same americans who are still processing the fact that our country has lost its top credit rating. here's the damage from today. the dow down over 634 points. that's the sixth largest point drop in its history. the worst since '08. nasdaq lost just about 7% of its total value. s&p 500 lost 6.6% of its value in one day. the preside...

captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. this was a dark day for the nation's fnz and for millions of americans with a financial stake in the markets. the very same americans who are still processing the fact that our country has lost its top credit rating. here's the damage from today. the dow down over 634 points. that's the sixth largest point drop in its history. the worst since '08. nasdaq lost just about 7% of its total value. s&p 500 lost 6.6% of its value in one day. the president went on television at midday to reassure americans but the damage was done....

it's now lost almost 2,000 points over the past two weeks. 2,000 points lost in two weeks. the president came out this afternoon and blamed the tea party. he may be right. what we need now is not blame but leadership. we need the president to produce, i think, saying this tonight, a two-point plan. a job creation plan for the short run and, two, just as important, a debt reduction plan for the long term. come out with the plan now. yes, cuts and entitlements, also make the wealthy pay their fair share and dare the republicans to say no. corporations and the rich don't have to contrib...

politicians' inability and a sell-off driven not only by the s&p decision by other variables only making matters worse and speaking of ghosts of christmas past, we also watched our own credit rating move from aaa tore aa, but also we watched today's downgrade of the government-funded housing finance companies. you've heard of them. freddie mac and fannie mae. we basically create lending vehicles to help subsidize housing. relieved of their toxic debt in 2008 -- by the government. that was the bailout, people. when uncle sam agreed to absorb the bank debt. that toxicity into the gover...