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.

President Obama will address the nation tonight regarding American intervention in the Middle East.  Republicans have been quick to paint him as a ditherer, but Obama’s pretext is that it is better to mitigate the “reflexive suspicion” of America as world police, than to soil our hands with another Arab war. David Cameron and Nicholas Sarkozy issued a join statement urging Gadhafi loyalists to side with NATO. The protection of civilians has been the main reason for the West to join in the wartime proceedings. But the real issues are just beginning.

Libya is a relatively unimportant country in terms of global power. Egypt, Iran and Syria are perhaps the three most important. The developments in Libya matter insofar as how they affect the momentum of the uprisings. How developments in the Big Three turn out could determine the fate of the 21st century.

Americans have low inflation and the central bank can easily ignore the sudden rise in oil prices. But around the world, rising food prices will be felt even more severely as inflation rises. That means that more unrest could be imminent as the countries who feel this the most are the emerging economies like China, Brazil and India and the Mideast. Food subsidies are prevalent in these developing countries, which is bad, potentially bankrupting news as more money goes to oil and food.

And if political uncertainty continues, the prices will only rise faster. Food prices rose 2.2% last month to a record high. Staples like wheat, rice and corn are most in danger of becoming unaffordable for many.

In other news, the Euro rose against the dollar as ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said that inflation will remain where it is; borrowing costs will stay at 1%. This overwhelmed unexpected business job filings in the U.S.  The Dow Jones is up 170 points at midday.

The implications for business are multifarious. The notion that anyone could design whatever they need has led some to speculate about a reversal of the effects of industrialization and business to business design, which according to a Marxian teleology (progression of capitalism into socialism), isn’t so far off. Empowering the individual to create and design whatever he needs, just as he wants it cuts out the middleman, and means less money spent.

Just imagine a future Manhattan composed entirely of skyscrapers and apartments, where people can get whatever they need within a three block radius. Sounds pretty green to me.

The best part about this new technology is that it isn’t fifty years away. Right now, a 3D printer costs less than one of the original ones did in 1985. It looks like this century may be about deindustrialization.

Consumer spending is the real issue here. Since labor is a resource, it makes sense to want to preserve it, like we do oil. Moreover, exporting labor will drive up prices abroad, which is great when we’re all scared of deflation. As the Economist points out, a 20% rise in Chinese consumption would create 200,000 American jobs alone. In effect,for the world economy to recover, we need Chinese workers to be treated better, and spend more. For that to happen, a stable urban workforce is necessary, as are greater skills and investments in employees to become long term.  That means lower profits, but it also means a more prosperous China.

And don’t worry about cheap labor, India and Southeast Asia are still rife with workers.

Worries about the European markets caused the slide of last week, but today when details were released about the stress tests for Euro banks and a date was set for July 23rd, confidence about the stress tests soared.

Despite low German manufacturing numbers, which were said to be based on a technical correction, crude oil regained stature, to $74 a barrel.  Spanish banks gained mightily as their team reached their first World Cup today.

Treasury prices fell as investors sought riskier stocks and the Euro regained some of its earlier losses, back up to $1.2638.

Unemployment is still extraordinarily high, however, and there’s much dispute as to whether a second stimulus is going to do anything. It seems that now, most of the world is willing to spend the next couple of years in the financial doldrums in order to reduce a future deficit.  Americans, and Europeans, want a long term fix, and stimulus doesn’t seem to be the answer.

It all started in China, when a revised index scared investors around the globe that one of the economic powerhouses could slow. Then everyone remembered the European debt crisis, and by the time the bell rang in New York, the Dow was below 10,000. By the end of the day it was at 9870.30, down 268.22 points and 2.7%, its largest one day decline since June 4th.

All the big tech companies were down, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon. Investors are unsure whether recovery will continue or we’re in for a double dip. Moving away from risk and volatility, bond markets surged, and the yield on Treasurys dropped below 3% for the first time since April 2009. Deflation remains a worry for many, as summer means slowing trade.

Many economists, including those in the Obama administration, are pushing for continued stimulus in order not to fall into a depression of low consumer spending and high unemployment rates. But European countries, already strapped, prefer just the opposite, following Germany’s austerity measures. Depression looks to be closer than everyone thought, as Bill Boehner, Speaker of the House hopeful, advocates a retirement age of 70, and major cuts in Social Security, which might not be a bad thing. Hopefully, it’s just the nervous nellies.

Estonia joined the E.U. yesterday, becoming the 17th member. The small Baltic state will switch from the kroon to the Euro on Jan. 1 2011.. There remains mild concern over the sinking currency, as voiced by Dmitri Medvedev. Austerity measures are being enacted all around the Euro Zone – France will up their retirement age to – gasp! – 62! and Germany, watching Greece, Spain and Portugal, hesitates to to inject money into their market to increase spending.

At home, interest rates are still low, easing fears that the economy could double dip. BP agreed to a $20 billion fund to help Gulf Coast residents, and Obama was booed for his Oval Office address. He warned that stimulus procedures must continue in order to maintain recovery. With the G-20 conference in Toronto next week, Obama also wants Chinese consumers to continue buying, by allowing the remninbi to appreciate. Their export driven economy will likely keep the remnibi where it is, or inch it ever so higher, due to its recent strength against the decreasing Euro.

All in all, people aren’t really sure where we’re going. Stimulus measures must be continued, but the recession is becoming every day more a thing of the past. As Randy Frederick, director of trading for Charles Schwab put it, “None of the problems have been resolved. They have been sort of moved off the headline page.”