Moody’s Cuts Last of Spain’s Triple-A Ratings

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And the people will be footed with the bill created by elite criminals that control all governments and are bankrupting one country after the other.

This is just the beginning for Spain.  Next are  Ireland, Portugal, Italy, the UK and France.


* Cuts Spain ratings to Aa1 vs AAA on weak growth outlook

* Says Spain vow on deficit key to just one notch downgrade

* Does not expect another rating cut any time soon

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MADRID, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Moody’s Investor Service cut Spain’s credit to Aa1 from AAA on Thursday, removing the last of its highly-valued triple-A ratings but saying it did not expect to cut again soon thanks to efforts at fiscal reform.

The one notch downgrade was widely discounted by the markets, following cuts by Standard and Poor’s in April and by Fitch Ratings in May.

Spain is one of the countries being watched most closely by financial markets in Europe’s struggle with billowing debt, but investors have so far given it an easier ride than Ireland and Portugal.

Read moreMoody’s Cuts Last of Spain’s Triple-A Ratings

Moody’s Downgrades Ireland’s Credit Rating

See also:

Anglo Irish Bank losses are the worst in the entire world


• Moody’s cuts Ireland’s sovereign bond rating by one notch

• Move will add to fears over Europe’s debt crisis

• IMF pulled €20bn finance deal for Hungary at the weekend

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Moody’s cut Ireland’s credit rating this morning, citing weaker growth prospects and the cost of rebuilding the country’s crippled banking system (The Guardian)

Credit ratings agency Moody’s has downgraded Ireland’s debt rating, adding to investor jitters about the state of Europe’s heavily indebted economies.

The agency cut Ireland’s sovereign bond rating by one notch to Aa2 this morning, citing weaker growth prospects and the high cost of rebuilding the country’s crippled banking system. It added that the outlook was stable.

But the downgrade comes after the International Monetary Fund and the European Union pulled a €20bn (£17bn) financing deal for Hungary over the weekend. Talks broke down on Saturday after the European commission voiced concerns over the newly elected Hungarian government’s budget plans.

This means Hungary will not have access to remaining funds of €5.5bn in its €20bn credit line, agreed two years ago, until a review is completed. Hungary’s currency, the forint, plunged more than 2.5% against the euro on the news and bond yields surged by up to 30 basis points.

Ireland’s downgrade came ahead of a bond auction tomorrow.

Read moreMoody’s Downgrades Ireland’s Credit Rating

China’s Leading Credit Rating Agency Strips Western Nations of AAA Status

China’s leading credit rating agency has stripped America, Britain, Germany and France of their AAA ratings, accusing Anglo-Saxon competitors of ideological bias in favour of the West.

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Beijing office buildings – Chinese rating agency strips Western nations of AAA status (AFP)

Dagong Global Credit Rating Co used its first foray into sovereign debt to paint a revolutionary picture of creditworthiness around the world, giving much greater weight to “wealth creating capacity” and foreign reserves than Fitch, Standard & Poor’s, or Moody’s.

The US falls to AA, while Britain and France slither down to AA-. Belgium, Spain, Italy are ranked at A- along with Malaysia.

Meanwhile, China rises to AA+ with Germany, the Netherlands and Canada, reflecting its €2.4 trillion (£2 trillion) reserves and a blistering growth rate of 8pc to 10pc a year.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, chief of the International Monetary Fund, agreed on Monday that the rising East is a transforming global force. “Asia’s time has come,” he said.

The IMF expects Asia to grow by 7.7pc in 2010, vastly outpacing the eurozone at 1pc and the US at 3.3pc. Emerging nations hold 75pc of the world’s $8.4 trillion (£5.6 trillion) of reserves.

Read moreChina’s Leading Credit Rating Agency Strips Western Nations of AAA Status

Hours After Debt Downgrade Greece Gets Vote of Confidence From China

Chinese sign multibillion euro contracts with Greece

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Greece’s prime minister George Papandreou welcomes Chinese vice-premier Zhang Dejiang who brought good news to the debt-ridden country.

Greece’s debt-ridden economy has received unexpected endorsement from China as the two countries announced multibillion euro accords to boost cooperation in fields as diverse as shipping, tourism and telecommunications.

The deals, which will see Greek olive oil being exported to China, were a welcome relief for a government smarting over Moody’s move hours earlier to downgrade the nation’s credit rating to junk.

As investors moved in the other direction, the world’s pre-eminent emerging economy embraced Greece. Signing the agreements, China’s vice premier Zhang Dejiang not only lauded Athens’ efforts to resolve its worst debt crisis in years but gave the eurozone’s weakest link a public vote of confidence, declaring it would soon come out of the woods.

“I am convinced that Greece can overcome its current economic difficulties,” said the politician who arrived in Athens with 30 of the economic power’s leading businessmen. “The Chinese government will encourage Chinese businesses to come to Greece to seek investment opportunities.”

Greek officials said the fourteen deals amounted to the biggest single investment by China in Europe. China views Greece as a “perfect gateway” to the continent and Balkan peninsular where Chinese exports have proliferated in recent years.

Under the agreement, Cosco, one of the world’s largest container terminal operators, will extend its reach with the construction of up to 15 dry bulk carriers in Greece. The company took over cargo management at Pireaus, the eastern Mediterranean’s premier dockyard, on a 35-year concession worth $1bn (£680m) last year.

The Chinese construction company BCEGI also signed an accord, thought to be worth €100m (£830m), to develop a hotel and shopping mall complex in Pireaus.

Other deals include the exchange of know-how between China’s Huawei Technologies and the Greek telecoms organization OTE and four agreements signed by food firms to export olive oil to China.

Read moreHours After Debt Downgrade Greece Gets Vote of Confidence From China

Fitch Cuts BP’s Credit Rating to Two Levels Above ‘Junk’

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The BP Plc company logo is displayed on a sign at a BP gas station in Romford, U.K. (Bloomberg)

June 15 (Bloomberg) — BP Plc’s credit rating was cut to two levels above “junk” by Fitch Ratings on concern over the potential cost of cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and meeting future liabilities.

BP’s long-term issuer default and senior unsecured ratings were lowered six levels to BBB from AA, Fitch said in a statement today. That follows a reduction from AA+ on June 3.

Read moreFitch Cuts BP’s Credit Rating to Two Levels Above ‘Junk’

Moody’s downgrades Greece’s credit rating to junk

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ATHENS, Greece — Moody’s Investors Service slashed Greece’s credit rating to junk status on Monday in a new blow to the debt-ridden country that is under intense international scrutiny after narrowly avoiding default last month.

A Moody’s statement said it was cutting Greece’s government bond ratings by four notches to Ba1 from A3, with a stable outlook for the next 12-18 months. It was the second of the three major agencies to accord Greek bonds junk status. Standard & Poor’s did the same in late April.

The downgrades reflect concern that the country could fail to meet its obligations to cut its deficit and pay down its debt — which the Greek government says is out of the question.

Read moreMoody’s downgrades Greece’s credit rating to junk

Fitch Downgrades Spain’s Credit Rating as Europe Battles Debt Crisis

May 29 (Bloomberg) — Spain lost its AAA credit grade at Fitch Ratings as Europe battles a debt crisis that’s prompted policy makers to forge an almost $1 trillion bailout package for the region’s weakest economies.

The ratings company cut the grade one step yesterday to AA+ and assigned it a “stable” outlook, according to a statement from London. Spain has held the top rating at Fitch since 2003. Standard & Poor’s lowered Spain’s ratings to AA on April 28.

“The process of adjustment to a lower level of private sector and external indebtedness will materially reduce the rate of growth of the Spanish economy over the medium-term,” Brian Coulton, Fitch’s head of Europe, Middle East and Africa sovereign ratings in London, said in the statement.

Read moreFitch Downgrades Spain’s Credit Rating as Europe Battles Debt Crisis

Germany, France May Hurt AAA Ratings in ‘Ponzi Game at The Highest Level’

This bailout is a Ponzi scheme and the people will foot the bill:

Here Is Who Just Got Their A$$ Saved By The Huge Euro Bailout (Business Insider)

Federal Reserve Opens Line Of Credit To Europe (AP)

Stephen Pope of Cantor Fitzgerald on ECB buying government bonds: ‘This is total, undiluted quantitative easing.’ (Forbes)

ECB Resorts to ‘Nuclear Option,’ Intervenes in Bond Market to Fight Euro Crisis (Bloomberg)


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The Deutsche Bundesbank. (Bloomberg)

May 11 (Bloomberg) — Germany and France are among top- rated euro-area states that may compromise their AAA grades by standing behind the debts of weaker members with their 750 billion-euro ($955 billion) stabilization fund.

The package is “making debt profiles deteriorate, potentially damaging the ratings of core sovereigns,” said Stefan Kolek, a strategist at UniCredit SpA in Munich. “It’s a kind of Ponzi game at the highest level.”

The unprecedented loan package was designed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to halt a sovereign- debt crisis that threatened to push Greece, Portugal and Spain into default and shatter confidence in the euro. As part of the support plan, Germany’s Bundesbank, the Bank of France and the Bank of Italy started buying government bonds yesterday.

Bonds of Portugal, Spain and other deficit-plagued nations on Europe’s periphery soared yesterday and bunds — the safe haven for holders of European government bonds — weakened as the threat of a Greek default receded. The cost of insuring against sovereign losses using credit-default swaps tumbled yesterday, with contracts on Greece sliding 370 basis points, their biggest one-day decline, to 577, according to CMA DataVision.

Read moreGermany, France May Hurt AAA Ratings in ‘Ponzi Game at The Highest Level’

Moody’s says very likely to downgrade Portugal’s credit rating

See also:

Elite Puppet Credit Rating Agencies Playing Big Roll In European Debt Crisis


* Downgrade now highly likely, review to take 3 months

* Still to discuss austerity with government

* Moody’s says may cut Portuguese banks’ ratings

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The historic part of Lisbon, the Portugeuse capital, recreated after an earthquake devastated the City in 1755

LISBON/NEW YORK, May 5 (Reuters) – Moody’s Investors Service put its credit rating for Portugal on a three-month review on Wednesday, and a senior Moody’s analyst said that as a result a downgrade of the credit rating is now likely.

Moody’s said it could downgrade Portugal’s Aa2 ratings by one, or at most two, notches, citing “the recent deterioration of Portugal’s public finances as well as the economy’s long-term growth challenges,” especially due to low competitiveness.

“We have sent a signal that it is possible, and I have to say, statistically, there is a very strong likelihood that if we put it on a review for downgrade then we follow through with a downgrade,” Anthony Thomas, vice president at Moody’s Sovereign Risk Group, told Reuters.

He said a downgrade was more likely now than when Moody’s first placed Portugal on negative outlook last year.

Read moreMoody’s says very likely to downgrade Portugal’s credit rating

Elite Puppet Credit Rating Agencies Playing Big Roll In European Debt Crisis

Only very few people are brave enough to call the financial crisis what it really is and that is financial terrorism.

One of those few people is Max Keiser:

Max Keiser on Greece: ‘The IMF is a Financial Mafia’

Max Keiser on the Greek Crisis (with Greek subtitles)

The entire financial crisis is an engineered crisis. It’s a controlled demolition.

The elite is looting and bankrupting the people everywhere, and when the people will finally beg in total despair for a solution, then the elite will present to them the New World Order (world government, a new world reserve currency etc.) as only possible solution to all the problems that the elite has created in the first place.

The elite controls/owns/runs governments, central banks, Wall Street, the mass media and of course useless rating agencies (that gave AAA ratings to bundled junk).


Credit Rating Agencies Playing Big Roll In European Debt Crisis

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NEW YORK — The downgrading of European debt is turning up the heat on the firms that issue the ratings.

Some European officials are calling for curbs on rating agencies like Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Corp. and Fitch Ratings. They argue that conflicts of interest and bad information make the agencies’ assessments unreliable, even dangerous.

Germany’s foreign minister went so far Thursday as to suggest that the European Union should create its own rating agency. He spoke after downgrades of Greece and Portugal roiled financial markets and stoked fears that Europe’s debt crisis was spreading.

How ratings agencies are paid is also coming under scrutiny. The money they earn comes from the institutions whose products and debt they rate – a point of contention in the U.S. and Europe. At a hearing last week on the agencies’ role in the financial crisis, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin called that pay system an “inherent conflict of interest.”

Legislation in Congress to overhaul the financial regulatory system could change how the rating agencies do business. Critics (= Analysts, economists, investors that are not bought and paid for by the elite.) note that the agencies gave safe ratings to high-risk U.S. mortgage investments that later imploded, triggering the financial crisis and a deep recession.

Read moreElite Puppet Credit Rating Agencies Playing Big Roll In European Debt Crisis

Warning For Britain As Financial Chaos Spreads to Spain

Spain’s economy was thrown into chaos on Thursday when its credit rating was cut, sharpening fears that Britain may suffer a similar fate.

The turmoil came just a day after Greece’s rating was cut, increasing concerns of a Europe-wide financial crisis.

The euro fell sharply and the interest rates European governments pay to borrow money jumped after Standard and Poor’s, a credit ratings agency, downgraded Spain.

Last night the government in Madrid appealed for calm, promising an “austerity programme” to cut spending.

But economists fear that events in Spain show that financial “contagion” is spreading from Greece, as investors are scared off investing in any European country with significant government deficits.

Britain’s government deficit this year will be bigger than that of either Greece or Spain, and some City analysts believe the UK’s AAA credit rating could be cut, driving up interest rates and raising the prospect of Britain being bailed out by the International Monetary Fund.

Yesterday David Cameron, the Conservative leader, suggested Britain could follow Greece into crisis. “Greece stands as a warning to what happens if you don’t pay back your debt,” he said.

Read moreWarning For Britain As Financial Chaos Spreads to Spain

Greece: Bondholders May Lose $265 Billion as S&P Sees 70% Loss

Standard & Poor’s Downgrades Greece’s Credit Rating to Junk (Bloomberg)


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April 28 (Bloomberg) — Holders of Greek bonds may lose as much as 200 billion euros ($265 billion) should the government default, according to Standard & Poor’s.

The ratings firm cut Greece three steps yesterday to BB+, or below investment grade, and said bondholders may recover only 30 percent and 50 percent for their investments if the nation fails to make debt payments. Europe’s most-indebted country relative to the size of its economy has about 296 billion euros of bonds outstanding, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The downgrade to junk status led investors to dump Greece’s bonds, driving yields on two-year notes to as high as 19 percent from 4.6 percent a month ago as concern deepened the nation may delay or reduce debt payments. Prime Minister George Papandreou is grappling with a budget deficit of almost 14 percent of gross domestic product.

“It’s now not just market sentiment, but a top rating agency sees Greek paper as junk,” said Padhraic Garvey, head of investment-grade strategy at ING Groep NV in Amsterdam.

Before yesterday, Greece’s bonds had lost about 17 percent this year, according to Bloomberg/EFFAS indexes. The 4.3 percent security due March 2012 fell 6.54, or 65.4 euros per 1,000-euro face amount, to 78.32.

Read moreGreece: Bondholders May Lose $265 Billion as S&P Sees 70% Loss

Standard & Poor’s Downgrades Greece’s Credit Rating to Junk

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George Papandreou, Greece’s prime minister, speaks at a press conference following the European Union Summit in Brussels, on March 26, 2010. (Bloomberg)

April 27 (Bloomberg) — Greece’s credit rating was cut three steps to junk by Standard and Poor’s, the first time a euro member has lost its investment grade since the currency’s 1999 debut. The euro weakened and stock markets throughout the region plunged.

Greece was lowered to BB+ from BBB+ by S&P, which also warned that bondholders could recover as little as 30 percent of their initial investment if the country restructures its debt. The move, which puts Greek debt on a par with bonds issued by Azerbaijan and Egypt, came minutes after the rating company reduced Portugal by two steps to A- from A+.

The turmoil comes as European Union policy makers struggle to agree on measures to ease the panic over swelling budget deficits. Leaders of the 16 euro nations may hold a summit after the Greek government’s decision last week to tap a 45 billion- euro ($60 billion) emergency-aid package failed to reassure investors, a European diplomat and Spanish official said.

“The markets are demanding their pound of flesh and want everything to be signed, sealed and delivered as of yesterday,” said David Owen, chief European financial economist at Jefferies International Ltd. in London.

The euro fell 1.3 percent to $1.3215 as of 2:58 p.m. in New York. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slid 3.1 percent to 261.65 points.

Read moreStandard & Poor’s Downgrades Greece’s Credit Rating to Junk

Fitch Downgrades Portugal’s Credit Rating Over Debt Concerns

portugal-credit-rating-downgraded-over-debt-concerns The government’s tough budget went unopposed by other parties

Portugal’s credit rating has been downgraded from AA to AA- by leading credit rating agency Fitch over concerns about its high levels of debt.

Earlier this month, Portugal passed an austerity budget aimed at cutting its budget deficit.

The downgrade heightened concerns about the health of some of Europe’s heavily indebted economies, forcing the euro lower against the dollar and the pound.

The euro slid against the dollar to its lowest point since May 2009.

It dropped 1.5 cents, or 1.1%, to $1.3346. Against the pound, the euro fell 0.2 pence to 89.55p.

The downgrade also sent major European stock markets into negative territory.

European impact

“A sizeable fiscal shock against a backdrop of relative macroeconomic and structural weaknesses has reduced Portugal’s creditworthiness,” said Douglas Renwick from Fitch Ratings.

Although the agency said Portugal’s austerity budget was “credible”, it said the government would need “to implement sizeable consolidation measures from next year”, as well as reverse stimulus measures this year, in order to get its debt levels under control.

The Portuguese Minister of Finance, Teixeira dos Santos, said it was key to maintain efforts to cut the budget deficit in order to differentiate the country from Greece.

“I am worried because we know that markets overshoot sometimes in their reactions,” he said. “The risk exists, I cannot ignore that.”

The downgrade could mean Portugal has to pay higher yields on government bonds to attract investors, making it more expensive for the country to borrow money – even though other leading ratings agencies may not necessarily follow Fitch’s lead.

Analysts stressed the wider European impact the downgrade could have.

“The downgrade has more impact on the wider sovereign debt crisis, rather than on Portugal at the moment,” said Peter Chatwell at Credit Agricole.

There have been widespread concerns about the high levels of debt of a number of European countries, most notably Greece.

At the end of last year, Fitch and Standard & Poor’s, the second of the three major international credit ratings agencies, downgraded Greek government debt.

European leaders are currently discussing how best to deal with Greece’s debt crisis.

Page last updated at 16:47 GMT, Wednesday, 24 March 2010

Source: BBC NEWS

Europe’s Top Banks Brace For UK Debt Crisis And Sterling Debacle

I have told you many times before that Gordon Brown, ‘THE SAVIOR’, is really just another elite puppet prime minister, that is destroying any future that the people of the UK might have had, hand in hand with the Bank of England, that is printing money like mad to destroy the pound.

The BoE calls it ‘Quantitative Easing’, which is creating money out of thin air = pure inflation, which is nothing more than a hidden tax.

Those criminals are looting the taxpayer until there is nothing left.

The same is happening in the US, with their elite puppet President Obama and the Fed.


UniCredit has alerted investors in a client note that Britain is at serious risk of a bond market and sterling debacle and faces even more intractable budget woes than Greece.

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No turning back: Sterling is going to fall further over coming months, warns Unicredit

The Italian-German group, Europe’s second largest bank, said Britain’s tax structure will make it hard to raise fresh revenue quickly enough to restore confidence in UK public finances.

“I am becoming convinced that Great Britain is the next country that is going to be pummelled by investors,” said Kornelius Purps, Unicredit ‘s fixed income director and a leading analyst in Germany.

Mr Purps said the UK had been cushioned at first by low debt levels but the pace of deterioration has been so extreme that the country can no longer count on market tolerance.

“Britain’s AAA-rating is highly at risk. The budget deficit is huge at 13pc of GDP and investors are not happy. The outgoing government is inactive due to the election. There will have to be absolute cuts in public salaries or pay, but nobody is talking about that,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

“Sterling is going to fall further over coming months. I am not expecting a crash of the gilts market but we may see a further rise in spreads of 30 to 50 basis points.”

Read moreEurope’s Top Banks Brace For UK Debt Crisis And Sterling Debacle

Fitch warns Britain and questions Greek rescue as sovereign risks grow

Fitch Ratings has delivered a serious blow to the credibility of the Government’s budget plans, warning that Britain risks a loss of investor confidence and erosion of its AAA rating unless it maps out clear austerity measures.

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Fitch warns Britain and questions Greek rescue as sovereign risks grow

Brian Coulton, the agency’s head of sovereign ratings, said the UK has seen “the most rapid rise in the ratio of public debt to GDP of any AAA-rated country” and is courting fate with its leisurely plan to halve the deficit by the middle of the decade.

“It is frankly too slow, a pedestrian pace. Why the UK thinks it has more time than other countries , we’re not sure. This needs to be reoriented,” he told the Fitch forum on sovereign hotspots.

A string of European states are stepping up the pace of retrenchment, aiming to cut deficits to 3pc of GDP within three years. The risk is that Britain will soon stick out like a sore thumb, left behind with a shockingly large deficit long after such loose fiscal policy can be justified as a crisis measure. The UK deficit this year is 12.6pc of GDP, the highest among G10 states.

Read moreFitch warns Britain and questions Greek rescue as sovereign risks grow

In The Worst Possible Moment, Fitch Downgrades Greece’s Largest Banks To BBB

Bund Spread Jumps 10 Bps To 325

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And just as Greece was about to launch its 10 year bond offering… Where is Papandreou to claim that Fitch was bought by all the accounts (who may or may not invest in the €5 billion issue) to make the price even better.

Because the spread to Bunds just jumped by about 10 bps to 325 following the news. Fitch notes: “The rating actions reflect Fitch’s view that the banks’ already weakening asset quality and profitability will come under further pressure due to anticipated considerable fiscal adjustments in Greece.

In particular, Fitch believes the required fiscal tightening that needs to be made by the Greek government will have a significant effect on the real economy, affecting loan demand and putting additional pressure on asset quality.

The latter could result in higher credit costs, ultimately weakening underlying profitability.” In the US, where any news is good news, equities jump following the headline.

From Fitch:

Fitch Ratings-Barcelona/London-23 February 2010: Fitch Ratings has today downgraded the Long-term and Short-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) of Greece’s four largest banks,  National Bank of Greece (NBG), Alpha Bank  (Alpha), Efg Eurobank Ergasias (Eurobank) and Piraeus Bank (Piraeus) to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB+’ and ‘F3’ from ‘F2′ respectively. The Outlook on the Long-term IDRs is Negative.

At the same time, the agency has downgraded the banks’ Individual Ratings to ‘C’ from ‘B/C’, whilst the ratings of the banks’ senior, subordinated and hybrid capital instruments have all been downgraded by one notch. The Support Ratings and Support Rating Floors (SRF) of all four banks have been affirmed.

A full rating breakdown is provided at the end of this comment.  Separately, Fitch has also affirmed Agricultural Bank of Greece’s (ATEbank) Long-term IDR at ‘BBB-‘, which is on its SRF, and Short-term IDR at ‘F3’. The Outlook on the Long-term IDR is Negative. ATEbank’s IDRs, Support Rating and SRF are based on sovereign support as the bank is majority-owned by the Greek state (rated ‘BBB+’/Negative Outlook).

Read moreIn The Worst Possible Moment, Fitch Downgrades Greece’s Largest Banks To BBB

S&P Downgrades Britain’s Banking Industry

Standard & Poor’s blames move on Britain’s weak economic environment and banks’ dependence on state support

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Northern Rock, one of the banks in which the British government has a majority stake. Standard & Poor’s said reliance on state support contributed to its move to downgrade the banking industry’s rating

Britain’s banking industry was downgraded by the international credit rating agency, Standard & Poor’s, as a result of the country’s “weak economic environment” and the banks’ “high” dependence on state support.

In its second major intervention in Britain in the past year, the agency announced that it was demoting Britain’s banking industry by one tier to its Group 3 out of 10. Banks in Canada, France and Germany are in the first and second groups.

The agency, which placed Britain on “negative watch” last May, said it had acted in light of Britain’s “weak economic environment, the reputational damage we believe has been experienced by the banking industry, and what we see as the high dependence on state-support programs of a significant proportion of the industry”. The government has a majority stake in two banks – RBS and Northern Rock.

Read moreS&P Downgrades Britain’s Banking Industry

S&P Threatens to Downgrade Japan’s Government Debt

Japan’s debt at risk. Is US next? (CNN Money):

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s raised the prospect of a downgrade in Japan’s sovereign debt rating Tuesday. That’s reigniting fears that the U.S. could be next.



TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services threatened Tuesday to downgrade Japan’s government debt by a notch, saying the young government isn’t fixing the nation’s bloated finances as fast as expected.

Lowering the outlook on Japan’s AA rating to negative from stable, S&P said: “The Japanese government’s diminishing economic policy flexibility may lead to a downgrade unless measures can be taken to stem fiscal and deflationary pressures.”

The surprise threat to Japan’s rating, the third-highest that S&P assigns, hit the yen and Japanese government bond prices and prompted concern that the move might dim previously robust prospects for bond issuance throughout Asia over the near term.

“The ratings on Japan could fall by one notch if economic data remain weak and measures to boost medium-term growth are not forthcoming, given the country’s high government-debt burden and its weak demographic profile,” S&P said.

Read moreS&P Threatens to Downgrade Japan’s Government Debt

Fitch: US Must Cut Spending To Save AAA Rating; US December Deficit Nearly Doubles

The US government has looted the taxpayer through bailouts for Wall Steet banksters and stimulus packages like there is no tomorrow.

Here is what Obama had to say about deficit spending:

“Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren,” Obama said in a 2006 floor speech that preceded a Senate vote to extend the debt limit. “America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.”
– Barack Obama

Here is what Obama is really doing:

December deficit nearly doubles (CNN Money):

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The U.S. government posted a deficit of $91.9 billion in December, nearly double the shortfall of a year earlier and marking the government’s 15th straight month in the red, the Treasury Department reported Wednesday.

The shortfall brings the total deficit for the first quarter of fiscal year 2010 to $388.5 billion, up from $332 billion during the same period last year.

It was the second consecutive December the government spent more than it took in. In December 2008, the deficit was $51.8 billion.

Obviously Obama is much, much worse than Bush. A task that I thought was almost impossible to achieve.

This is Obamanomics, looting the US taxpayer until there is nothing left:

Nobel Peace Laureate Obama seeks additional $33 billion for wars, on top of a record request for $708 billion for the Defense Department (AP)

Obama administration posts widest-ever October budget deficit (AP)

–  US budget deficit tripled to a record $1.4 trillion in 2009 (Wall Street Journal)

Many Americans still think that Obama is on ‘their’ side. Here is the truth about Obamanomics:

“When a country embarks on deficit financing and inflationism you wipe out the middle class and wealth is transferred from the middle class and the poor to the rich.”
– Ron Paul

“Deficits mean future tax increases, pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.”
– Ron Paul


Fitch Ratings has issued the starkest warning to date that the US will lose its AAA credit rating unless acts to bring the budget deficit under control, citing a spiral in debt service costs and dependence on foreign lenders.

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Fitch warns the US must cut spending and raise taxes to cut its deficit to save its AAA rating. Despite better-than-expected retail sales in December, consumers are struggling and the deficit is out of control. Photo: AFP

Brian Coulton, the agency’s head of sovereign ratings, said the US is shielded for now by its pivotal role in global finance and the dollar’s status as the key reserve currency, but the picture is deteriorating fast enough to ring alarm bells.

“Difficult decisions will have to be made regarding spending and tax to underpin market confidence in the long-run sustainability of public finances. In the absence of measures to reduce the budget deficit over the next three to five years, government indebtedness will approach levels by the latter half of the decade that will bring pressure to bear on the US’s ‘AAA’ status”, he said.

Fitch expects the combined state and federal debt to reach 94pc of GDP next year, up from 57pc at the end of 2007. Federal interest costs will reach 13pc of revenues, meaning that an eighth of all taxes will go to service debt. Most fiscal experts view this level as dangerously close to the point of no return for debt dynamics.

The rating alert is a reminder that fiscal stimulus and bank rescues across the world have merely shifted private debt on to public shoulders. The bail-outs looked deceptively ‘costless’ at the time, but the damage to sovereign states may take years to repair. The US Treasury says interest payments as a share of GDP will rise to 3.6pc by 2016, the highest since data began in 1940 – when it was 0.8pc.

Read moreFitch: US Must Cut Spending To Save AAA Rating; US December Deficit Nearly Doubles

Moody’s Downgrades Greece’s Credit Rating

Moody’s has downgraded Greece’s credit rating, despite efforts by the new Socialist government to slash public spending and pull the country out of an economic crisis.

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A man walks by a graffiti reading ‘eat the rich’, sprayed on the wall of a bank office in central Athens. Photo: EPA

The credit rating agency is the third to downgrade Greek government bonds – changing them from an A1 category to A2.

Standard and Poor’s and Fitch have also downgraded their assessment of the country’s ability to pay back debt.

Greece is facing its worst debt crisis in decades and has come under intense European Union pressure to improve public its finances and comply with deficit limits intended to support the shared euro currency.

The government announced a raft of measures this month to reduce Greece’s massive public debt, which has reached €300bn (£270bn).

It has promised to gradually bring the budget deficit – projected at 12.7pc of GDP for 2009 – to below the European Union’s eurozone requirement of 3pc of GDP by the end of 2013.

Read moreMoody’s Downgrades Greece’s Credit Rating

Fitch warns: Britain and France risk losing their AAA rating

Fitch Ratings has given its bluntest warning to date that Britain and France risk losing their AAA status unless they map out a clear path to budget discipline over the next year.

fitch-ratings

Highlighting the “unpleasant fiscal arithmetic” facing states across the Old World, Fitch said that none of the “arguably” benchmark AAA states can safely rely on their top rating for much longer.

Public debt in both Britain and France will reach 90pc of GDP by 2011, higher than the 80pc (net) level when Japan lost its AAA rating earlier this decade.

Japan’s error at the time was the failure to set out any serious plan to rein in spending, a lesson that the Europeans need to study closely. “The UK, Spain, and France must articulate credible fiscal consolidation programmes over the coming year, given the budgetary challenges they face in stabilising public debt. Failure to do so will greatly intensify pressure on their sovereign ratings,” it said.

Brian Coulton, Fitch’s global strategist, said Labour had fallen well short in the pre-Budget report. “They did not articulate fully what needs to be done,” he said.

Read moreFitch warns: Britain and France risk losing their AAA rating

Fitch downgrades Greece’s debt rating to BBB+ with negative outlook

Related articles:

Greece Finance Minister Says No Risk of Default (Bloomberg)

Greece to Reporters: We’re Not Dubai or Iceland (Wall Street Journal)

Here is why Greece is not Dubai or Iceland:

Greece is a member of the European Union since 1981, which makes all the difference.

The EU: ‘Only ‘EUnited’ we fail!’


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ATHENS, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Ratings agency Fitch cut Greece’s debt to BBB+ on Tuesday with a negative outlook, the latest blow to the troubled euro zone country, driving its bonds, bank shares and the euro itself lower.

The cut was the first time in 10 years a major ratings agency has dropped Greece below an A grade. Fitch cited fiscal deterioration in one of the 16-member currency bloc’s most indebted member states.

“The downgrade reflects concerns over the medium-term outlook for public finances given the weak credibility of fiscal institutions and the policy framework in Greece,” Fitch said in a statement, calling for austere fiscal policies.

“The lack of substantive structural policy measures reduces confidence that medium term consolidation efforts will be aggressive enough to ensure public debt ratios are stabilised and then reduced over the next three to five years,” it said.

Read moreFitch downgrades Greece’s debt rating to BBB+ with negative outlook

Moody’s: Top US And UK Debt Ratings May ‘Test The Aaa Boundaries’

See also:

Moody’s Puts US, UK on Chopping Block (Wall Street Journal)

Moody’s Says US, UK Have to Fix Public Finances (ABC New)

US, Britain may test Aaa boundaries, Moody’s warns (MarketWatch)


Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — Moody’s Investors Service said its top debt ratings on the U.S. and the U.K. may “test the Aaa boundaries” because their public finances are worsening in the wake of the global financial crisis.

The U.S. and U.K. have “resilient” Aaa ratings, as opposed to the “resistant” top ratings of Canada, Germany and France, analysts led by Pierre Cailleteau in London said in a report. None of the top-rated countries is “vulnerable,” or have public finances that are “stretched beyond the point of ‘no return’ to the Aaa category,” New York-based Moody’s said.

Read moreMoody’s: Top US And UK Debt Ratings May ‘Test The Aaa Boundaries’