"it's the economy..."

I have a feeling in the weeks and months to come the implications of the S & P's downgrading of US debt and the resulting effects on the stock market, such as today's %5.55 drop, will become a more common topic on this blog as the support for public services declines in its wake, and this as we know tends to bode poorly for philosophy programs. In the relatively short statement that accompanied their downgrade, the statement cites the recent debt compromise that was passed, and the manner in which it was passed, as principle reasons for the downgrade; most notably it (1) does not sufficiently tackle spending and, (2) more importantly the political brinksmanship and dysfunction in Washington demonstrates a lack of will to do what needs to be done, as especially evidenced by, to quote the statement, "the majority of Republicans in Congress [who] continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act." Now given the poor showing of rating agencies in the lead-up to the 2008 crisis one might not put much stock (pardon the pun) into this downgrade. I do believe today marks an economic turning point, or an event in the Deleuzian sense. Coincidentally, I just got an email from Ian Buchanan that highly recommends Richard Dienst's book The Bonds of Debt. Ian claims this book is a "brilliant iteration of Deleuze's 'society of control' thesis." Michael Hardt also has a blurb up at the Amazon site which states that

Richard Dienst’s most radical proposition in this wonderfully clear and provocative little book is that we are burdened not by too much debt but by too little. Yes, we must discover ways to refuse and escape the regime of debt to the figures of power and institutions that rule over us, but we must also, and perhaps more importantly, recognize indebtedness as a basic human condition and create social ties that at once bind us to each other and free us. The combination of these two tasks is an exciting, even revolutionary, project.

Given recent events the book is timely. I'll post some thought on it once I've read it myself, though I welcome comments from anyone who has already read it, or any comments on the economic turmoil that seems to be gathering steam with each passing day.