In the last few days a Tumblr called simply Sad Guys On Trading Floors has had yet another jolt in internet popularity. This snarky view of those connected to the stock market is pervasive throughout the American citizenry. Their lack of sympathy of course is not unearned. This week the dollar took a hit by being downgraded from a triple A economy (AAA) to an AA+ economy by the firm Standard’s & Poor. Interestingly this same firm once gave AAA ratings to banks and toxic assets that caused our first crash back in 2008. Now as they have denigrated the dollar they have once again launched a sell off on the stock market sure to hit middle America and the middle class at large hard.

It would seem there is a few things the markets could(but most likely will not) do to save face and maybe save some people a lot of hardship. For one thing they could hold on to stocks rather than making moves on short term fears. The only way for the economy to begin to grow and for business development to flourish again is for money to still be circulating throughout it. With the government officially on cut-back mode that leaves the private sector and Wall Street to bravely take on investing in America once again. Of course I won’t hold my breath.

Business development requires smart internet moves and yet these days there is an increase in social networking tools making an effort to undermine the work of people making empty marketing based content on social networking sites. A great example is Klout. The folks at Klout are trying to measure individual’s merits within and out side of their own social network. The site takes it’s measurements not by sheer quantity of followers but by those followers engagement with content in “likes,” retweets, and active commentary.

This does not mean your business is out of the social networking game it simply means that you have to up the ante and offer your customers content that sparks their collective interest. Links to deals are great but how can you make offering something into a conversation? Answer that question and you will be cracking the code for better brighter business news in the future.

Greek skies are dark.

Greece is still in a sticky situation. When the IMF members meet this week, they will decide on the fate of this Mediterranean country, and how to deal with its onerous debt.

If Greece defaults on its debt and drops out of the Euro zone, the complications for business around the world could be catastrophic. Default could become contagious and spread to Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and even Italy.

Greece is deeply entrenched in its uncompetitive, profligate ways. Even if it doesn’t default, which it hopefully will not, it faces years of debt restructuring ahead. The Economist argues that its $159 billion bailout package will not be enough. The prime minister, George Papandreou, hopes that the IMF and EU voters will be able to rustle up another $100 billion or so to prop the country until the middle of this decade, when the EU will have a better plan for what to do with the fiscally insolvent. But the rest of Europe (ahem, Germany) will be irate if this happens.

The best option for Greece is an entire debt restructuring. That would mean big losses for Greek banks and other Europeans as well as more influence from Brussels and the IMF, which could be a good thing for European fiscal policy. Here’s hoping.

High oil business prices are poised to dramatically affect global economic growth this year. As The Economist notes, an 85% hike in oil prices is almost always followed by a recession. While other developed nations have a petrol tax, above 1%, ours is about a quarter of a percent. This leads to increased spending on highways, perpetuating the problem instead of spending on transit alternatives.

The Arab countries in revolt (Egypt, Yemen, Iran, Algeria, Libya, and Bahrain) supply about a fifth of the world’s oil, and since prices reflect future expectations, the more trouble, the more expensive oil is.

Chances are there will be many more repercussions of the revolution. Even if the Saudis can make up for the lack, it won’t be for long. Americans should begin to think about oil business alternatives and absorbing revenue from rising oil prices with a petrol tax is the best way to force them to do so.

The first is the best deal. It used to last for six months, but the Fed extended it to 99 weeks. Benefits comes from state funding and although many states don’t have any more money, the ones that do offer much greater forms of aid than other handouts.

Food stamps are doled out to those who make less than $28, 668 for a family of four. Ordinarily, food stamps are only given for three months during a three year period, but in states like Ohio, that stipulation has been suspended until October of next year.

Health care is another big issue. A family of four must have a monthly income of less than $1,654. Typically these benefits are only given to families with small children.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) monies usually fund programs that help people get back into work, such as child care, but increasingly more of them have become direct cash assistance.

My question is what happens when unemployment stays above 8 percent for the next five years because no business wants to hire people without skills and who have been out of the work force for longer than a year? Will we have adjusted to having a nation where one out of ten people live below the poverty line? I hope so.

Europe continues its practice of austerity as it tries to stabilize its debt ridden detractors (Ireland, Portugal and Greece lead the bunch). And because they don’t seem to be getting any more competitive, it seems price leveling and wage decreases are likely more imminent. With a huge debt already upon them, it may be even more difficult to escape from years of austerity.

Meanwhile, the developing world continues to surge. China is investing heavily in the technologies of tomorrow as it fights inflation. In India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam, inflation continues to surge past 5%. With little action to raise interest rates, there is general concern about how the developing world will conduct their business to business relations, and whether private investing will continue at the rate it has.

So hopefully, the E.U. will continue to rebound, the U.S. will continue to spend, and the developing world will raise interest rates. It shouldn’t be that bad. This year wasn’t. Right?

The notion of state communism buying out capitalistic markets may be frightening to many free marketers, but it is exactly this that will lead the world economy into the 21st century. Tensions about rigging economies for the sake of politics will only undermine global capitalism. China couldn’t possibly own all of the energy resources in the world; and as a result buyers will always have another choice. Competition remains the driving force in this market, and global investment is the right avenue. Moreover, investment abroad will bring China into a more diplomatic arena, one they desperately need to enter.

In the meanwhile, Barack Obama finished his tour of Asia, but couldn’t seal the deal on a trade pact with South Korea that would have represented the largest of its kind since Nafta. The free trade agreements may meet with discontent on Capitol Hill, something which the president seemed wary of. The fact that he was unable to deliver at deadline, his advisors noted, is “very troubling.”

Well, tomorrow the anti-incumbent rage will manifest itself. Tea Partiers will certainly give Obama a run for his money at his claim for bipartisanship. But they are also the best thing happening right now. Voters better know what they don’t want than what they do – and the cronyism and insider dealings that have plagued Washington and forced Obama to glide along on the seat of his pants have wound us into the outrage we today know so well.

So three cheers for less debt, and for changing the system. How? We don’t know, but maybe the newly elected will.

And so the real problem is not that the effects will be unfelt, but that those who want to see results most – not the unemployed, but the politicians who want the votes of the unemployed – will be let down. What is really needed is another burst of stimulus, along with some English belt-tightening along the way. But when Republicans take control of the House next week, you can bet they will be unwilling to spend any more. Perhaps they can compromise by cutting the benefits doled out to labor unions from the first stimulus, and recognize that with another two years before a vote, the payoff could be worth the risk.

These Americans are now part of an expanding lower class. With unemployment rates hovering around 9.5%, the real story is that almost a fifth of the country does not work full time. The extra ten percent comes from those who have odd jobs and who have stopped looking for work altogether. The happy huge middle class of the 90′s and 00′s is now a shrinking demographic.

While the stock market has spiraled upwards as of late, and growth abroad, especially in the Euro Zone, is significantly stronger than expected, Germany’s especially, the Economist argues that all of these signs- European optimism and American pessimism- are overblown. It will still take more investing in developing economies to move away from the recession. Until the world realizes and comes to terms with the fact that this was the event that shaped the course of the 21st century, there is a long way to go.