At the end of the first quarter of 2000, there are only four companies rated AAA by Moody’s vs. 25 companies in 1980. That means that 21 companies have dropped that esteemed designation over the past 28 years. The surviving top firms are: Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Automated Data Processing Inc. GE had been on that honored list since 1967, but March 23rd was bumped down to Aa2 along with its GE Capital Corp. unit. Not long after that, the venerable Berkshire Hathaway was stripped of its AAA rating.

They say that "man is the only animal that blushes . . . or needs to." The U.S., as the center of the contemporary capital marketplace, should be flushed with the embarrassment that only four U.S. firms can be considered top quality, best return, best risk businesses. So, all of our impressive capital credentials, our high-priced business-educated financial quants have produced a nation with fewer triple-A rated businesses to compete in the modern world than way back when your mother was in grade school.

Today we have the largest flight of capital to government protection at the same time we expect welfare mothers to get of their duffs and get to work, earning their food stamps.

We should be ashamed. Very VERY ashamed.