The mainstream media seems to be blaming the stock market drop, which was very severe today, but has been going on for over a week, on the so-called "downgrade" of the U.S. credit rating by Standard and Poors. Yeah, it undoubtedly had an influence because of the timing. But this is one more example of the mainstream media jumping on something and not looking any deeper and giving the public information which is less than on the mark.

People and organizations with lots of money control the stock market. If you have a thousand dollars worth of microsoft stock and sell it at the price of the moment. it wouldn't make a blip in one of the major stock markets like the NASDAQ, which generally sells that kind of electronic business stock. It takes the big stock holders to sell to trigger that kind of loss. Once those kind of losses start registering, others may join in, including small holders, which cumulatively can have an impact, but it is the big funds - mutual funds, retirement funds, etc. that register the changes in the index.

And the holders aren't just Americans anymore. They are from all over the world. And they are looking at the money situation all over the world when deciding what to do. And, apparently, and I sure can understand this, many of these large share holders are very nervous that things are going to go down, and they are getting what they can. It's dog eat dog.

The U.S. debt is part of it, but only a small part. The debt situation in Italy and other European countries widely reported, such as Greece, threaten the stability of the Euro, which just a few years ago was much more valuable than the dollar. Instability and violence in Mexico, and now London, adds to it. The conflicts in Syria, Israel, and other mideastern countries also adds to the uncertainty. What is going on in the U.S is, all in all, pretty stable compared to all of that.

What Standard and Poors did was totally political. They are in the "destroy Obama" camp, whether it is merited or not. They are afraid that they might have to chip in a little more to fix the nation's problems and they don't want to. Great patriots! So, they do what they can - throw a flaming arrow at the economy.

And it caught fire. But the fire from that arrow is only a little compared to the fires raging in other places around the world that are influencing peoples' opinions of the global monetary situation. What Standard and Poors did was miniscule. So why is the major media saying that it was the credit downgrade from Standard and Poors that caused the big stock market drop today? Hard to say - but it is only marginally correct.

I keep expecting more from the mainstream media and I don't get it.