Few people reading today's news will pay much attention to Latvia's debt being cut to junk. So why even spend time reading about this small insignificant country?

Remember back on February 22, 2008 when the British bank Northern Rock went insolvent and had to be taken over by the state. No one back then really paid much attention. It was a small news item and didn't impress most people. What most people didn't notice was that Northern Rock was one of the top five mortgage lenders in Britain. Looking back, the failure of Northern Rock was probably the beginning of our current banking crisis.

This post is part of our feature on Money Winners of 2008. See all 20.

Whatever you do, don't tell my mom about John Webber. He's an English guy who had hung onto a cup that his junk dealer grandfather bought in the 1930s. One day he took it out from under the bed and decided to get it examined. It turns out to be made of gold, about 1,700 years old, and decorated with the face of a Roman god. He got $100,000 at auction.

The reason I don't want you to tell my mom about this guy is that this is exactly the scenario she thinks will happen with every mug she has ever bought at a garage sale, each "collectible" she keeps stashed in cabinets and even the old eight-track player that she cannot be persuaded is worthless. It's stories like Webber's that keep houses full of junk.

Also, Webber is now in his 70s. I don't know what his family or financial situation is. I'm sure he could use $100,000. Who couldn't? But I'm also pretty sure that the money would've made a bigger difference in his life if he had examined the cup when he was saving for a house, sending a kid to school, or starting a business.

Be sure to check out more Money Winners of 2008.

Standard & Poor's has slashed Motorola Inc.'s (NYSE: MOT) credit rating to junk status, saying that continued operational challenges will lead to weak cash flows.

"Revenues and profits in the first part of the year will be challenged by a narrower, somewhat-dated product portfolio," S&P's Bruce Hyman said in a statement. "Standard & Poor's also expects about 10 percent fewer handsets to be sold worldwide in 2009 at lower average prices than in 2008."

On December 1, BloggingStocks' Doug McIntyre wrote that "As hard as it would have been to imagine a year ago, Motorola may still have to dump its cell operation and perhaps put it into Chapter 11. Its fate is that grim. It needs to escape its employee and creditor obligations to make it."

The company's November 2012 notes are trading at a yield of 8.02% -- hardly a sign of a company in severe distress.

But everything the company needs to do to turn itself around will be made more difficult by a weak credit rating in an environment where it's tough for company's with good credit ratings to secure access to capital.

But the one thing we can see from this is that Carl Icahn's complaint that the company was under-leveraged may not have been the case.

Countrywide Financial-(NYSE-CFC) Put volume & implied volatility Spikes on sell off. CFC, the largest U.S. home mortgage lender, is recently down $3.16 to $21.40. CFC call option volume of 98,035 contracts compares to put volume of 191,635 contracts. CFC September option implied volatility of 141 is above its 26-week average of 55 according to Track Data, indicating larger price fluctuations.

ExxonMobil-(NYSE-XOM) September implied volatility of 31 above 26-week average of 24. XOM is recently up .65 to $83.76. Crude oil futures are up 1.02% to $73.12 according to Bloomberg. XOM September option implied volatility of 31 is above its 26-week average of 24 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price fluctuations.