Kai Ryssdal: It’s Wednesday — we’ve got mail.

We got all kinds of letters about my conversation Monday with David Beers from Standard and Poor’s. About the downgrade, of course. Recall that S&P and the rest of the raters gave mortgage-backed securities AAA ratings until those securities helped tank the market and bring us the great financial crisis of 2008.

Kerry Bouchard of Fort Worth, Texas, had this to say: “Standard & Poor’s? It’s like someone hired a Donner Party survivor to run a wilderness guide accreditation agency.”

Commentator Reihan Salam put forward a modest proposal last week: get the economy going by offering tax breaks to college graduates under 25.

Krista Frohling of St. Louis says it’s about time young people are offered a helping hand.

Krista Frohling: Everyone is concerned with cutting Social Security and Medicare for the current generation, but my generation has given up all hope that those benefits will even be around for us at all.

LaCresha Kolba from Nashville, Tenn., felt differently.

LaCresha Kolba: It’s really frustrating to hear these college graduates whine and complain, ‘Oh, I can’t find a job because the economy is bad,’ and I’m sitting here going, I couldn’t find a job when the economy was good.

Finally, we’ve been playing the sad music a lot the past week or so. So much, in fact, that I opined one day we should have something even sadder than the wah wah trombones. Herewith, a medley of your suggestions.

That last one, by the way? “March to the Scaffolds” from Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz.

You can send us your thoughts, music suggestions, whatever you like.