A couple weeks ago, I sarcastically stated that the world's credit agencies were starting to threaten multiple national credit downgrades as if they had a plan to leave the planet altogether. We may be past sarcasm:

The ratings agency placed the ratings of 15 euro zone countries, including top-rated nations Germany and France, on credit watch negative -- a move that signals a possible downgrade in no later than three months.

The U.S., Japan, England were all part of the last round of threats. Meanwhile, they may have found a place to go.

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of an Earth-like planet in the "habitable zone" around a star not unlike our own. The planet, Kepler 22-b, lies about 600 light-years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth, and has a temperature of about 22C.

#OccupyThat! [cross-posted at Firedoglake]