Rating – Page 6 – Infinite Unknown

Standard & Poor’s downgrades Baltic states’ debt ratings

August 11, 2009 by Infinite

The US should have been downgraded a ‘looong’ time ago:

– The Greatest Economic Collapse Is Coming:
“To give you an idea of how big a problem these deficits are, consider that the US government could tax its citizens 100% of their earnings and NOT have a balanced budget.” (!)

– Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank:
The“very big hole” in unfunded pension and health-care liabilities is over $99 trillion.
(Full article: Here)

– Glenn Beck: United States Debt Obligations Exceed World GDP

– Federal obligations exceed world GDP

S&P like the Obama administration is controlled by the elite behind the scenes.

The sovereign debt of Latvia and Estonia have been downgraded as the brutal slump plays havoc with public finances and tests commitment to euro currency pegs across the Baltic states.

Tallinn in Estonia, where sovereign debt has been downgraded

Standard & Poor’s, the credit-rating agency, cut Latvia’s rating to “BB” and warned that its economy will contract by a further 16pc this year. The public debt will vault from 19pc of GDP last year to 80pc by 2011. “This very fast increase in debt is unprecedented,” said Moritz Kraemer, S&P’s head of sovereign ratings.

S&P said the country is facing a “struggle” to find a path back to growth while also maintaining its currency peg, but the agency stopped short of advising whether devaluation would help.

There is an intense debate in the Baltics over whether the euro pegs are themselves causing an unnecessarily harsh adjustment, entailing salary cuts of up to 20pc. The International Monetary Fund had privately suggested a devaluation in Latvia to help cushion the blow, but this was overruled by the European Union on grounds that most of the country’s corporate and mortgage debt is in foreign currencies.

GDP has fallen 20pc in Latvia and 22pc in Lithuania over the past year – more concentrated falls than anything seen in the Great Depression. Both countries expect unemployment to peak at almost a quarter of the workforce.

Moody’s cuts California’s credit rating below A, may cut more

July 15, 2009 by Infinite

The rating firm warns that the risk is rising that the state could have trouble paying its bondholders if the budget stalemate in Sacramento doesn’t end soon.

Two out of three major bond-rating firms now agree: California’s credit grade should begin with a B — a dismal comment on the state’s finances.

Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday cut the state’s debt rating two notches, to Baa1 from A2, warning that the risk was rising that California could have trouble paying its bondholders if the budget stalemate in Sacramento didn’t end soon.

The firm said the state remained on its “watchlist” for further downgrades.

Moody’s Baa1 rating is just three notches above the level at which California’s $59 billion in general obligation bonds would be considered “junk,” or no longer investment-grade in quality. Next would be Baa2, then Baa3, then the junk rating of Ba.

The Biggest US Banks Don’t Want California’s IOUs

July 7, 2009 by Infinite

Don’t miss:
– Day of Reckoning for California and, ultimately, for all of America:
“Why I Expect a Default on California’s Bonds”

A group of the biggest U.S. banks said they would stop accepting California’s IOUs on Friday, adding pressure on the state to close its $26.3 billion annual budget gap.

The development is the latest twist in California’s struggle to deal with the effects of the recession. After state leaders failed to agree on budget solutions last week, California began issuing IOUs — or “individual registered warrants” — to hundreds of thousands of creditors. State Controller John Chiang said that without IOUs, California would run out of cash by July’s end.

But now, if California continues to issue the IOUs, creditors will be forced to hold on to them until they mature on Oct. 2, or find other banks to honor them. When the IOUs mature, holders will be paid back directly by the state at an annual 3.75% interest rate. Some banks might also work with creditors to come up with an interim solution, such as extending them a line of credit, said Beth Mills, a California Bankers Association spokeswoman.

Meanwhile, on Monday morning, a budget meeting between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders failed to produce a result. Amid the budget deadlock, Fitch Ratings on Monday dropped California’s bond rating to BBB, down from A minus, the latest in a series of ratings downgrades for the state.

The group of banks included Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., among others. The banks had previously committed to accepting state IOUs as payment. California plans to issue more than $3 billion of IOUs in July.

California: Credit Rating Cut Close to Junk After IOUs

July 7, 2009 by Infinite

July 6 (Bloomberg) — California’s credit rating was cut for the second time in as many weeks by Fitch Ratings after a stalemate over how to close a $26 billion budget deficit forced the most-populous U.S. state to pay some bills with IOUs.

Fitch lowered its rating of California’s general obligation bonds by two steps to BBB from A-, placing the debt two ranks above so-called high-yield, high-risk junk ratings, and said the state may be cut further. The credit-rating company last lowered its assessment of California on June 25.

California, the largest issuer of municipal bonds, last week began issuing IOUs for the second time since the Great Depression as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers remained deadlocked over the budget cuts needed to make up for revenue lost because of the recession. California Controller John Chiang said the step was needed to conserve cash.

“The downgrade to ‘BBB’ is based on the state’s continued inability to achieve timely agreement on budgetary and cash flow solutions to its severe fiscal crisis,” Fitch said in a statement.

Harvard professor: The probability of a real sterling crisis is around one in three, and the probability of major tax hikes and cuts in public spending is roughly one in one

July 1, 2009 by Infinite

Sterling Crisis Looms as U.K. Unraveling Points to Budget Cuts

June 30 (Bloomberg) — The state of the U.K. economy fills British financial historian Niall Ferguson with foreboding.

“The probability of a real sterling crisis is around one in three, and the probability of major tax hikes and cuts in public spending is roughly one in one,” the Harvard University professor says.

Ferguson’s concern stems from the deterioration in the U.K.’s public finances, which prompted Standard & Poor’s to warn on May 21 that the country could lose its AAA debt rating. The firm estimated the cost of propping up Britain’s banks at 100 billion pounds ($166 billion) to 145 billion pounds and said government debts could double to almost 100 percent of gross domestic product by 2013.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said on April 22 that this year’s government deficit would hit 12.4 percent of GDP. Alan Clarke, a London-based economist at BNP Paribas SA, expects it to reach 17 percent of GDP in 2010.

Fitch downgrades California’s general obligation debt

June 25, 2009 by Infinite

CHICAGO, June 25 (Reuters) – Fitch Ratings on Thursday downgraded the rating on California’s general obligation debt and said it may lower the rating again, citing the state’s continued fiscal and economic stress.

The agency cut the state’s rating by one notch to A-minus, placing it four notches above speculative, or “junk” status, and making it the lowest rating of any U.S. state.

California’s credit rating may be cut several levels: Moody’s

June 20, 2009 by Infinite

June 19 (Bloomberg) — California’s credit rating, already the lowest among U.S. states, may be cut several levels by Moody’s Investors Service as government leaders seek ways to eliminate a $24 billion budget deficit.

The move would affect $72 billion of debt, Moody’s said in a statement today. California’s full faith and credit pledge is rated A2 by Moody’s, five steps above high-yield, high-risk status, or junk.

A downgrade may increase the state’s borrowing cost and raise the yield paid to investors on its bonds. Standard & Poor’s put California on watch for a possible reduction earlier this week, and Fitch Ratings did the same thing May 29. The rating companies cited the most-populous state’s deficit — amounting to more than 20 percent of the general fund — and lawmakers’ inability to agree on how to close the gap.

“If the Legislature does not take action quickly, the state’s cash situation will deteriorate to the point where the controller will have to delay most non-priority payments in July,” Moody’s said in a report today. “Lack of action could result in a multi-notch downgrade.”

U.S. likely to lose AAA rating

June 16, 2009 by Infinite

But, but … S&P Ratings: Why the US Government Is Still Rated AAA (BusinessWeek)

If you are still trusting Standard & Poor’s for one moment you are doomed and deserve to lose a lot more of your money.

Of course I agree with Robert Prechter:
The economy “is obviously heading toward a depression.”

“The banking sector is in severe trouble,” as more loans turn bad, he said.

“It’s the next leg down (in stocks) that will make it clear that these things (that the Fed has avoided disaster and that the economy has hit bottom) are not true,” Prechter said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Technical analyst Robert Prechter on Monday said he sees the United States losing its top AAA credit rating by the end of 2010, as he stuck by a deeply bearish outlook on the U.S. economy and stock market.

Prechter, known for predicting the 1987 stock market crash, joins a growing coterie of market heavyweights in forecasting the United States will lose its top credit rating as the government issues trillions of dollars in debt to fund efforts to bail out the economy.

Fears about the long-term vulnerability of the prized U.S. credit rating came to the fore after Standard & Poor’s in May lowered its outlook on Britain, threatening the UK’s top AAA rating. That move raised fears that the United States could face a similar risk, with the hefty amounts of government debt issued in both countries to pay for financial rescues causing budget deficits to swell.

US Treasury bloodbath soaks top fund managers

June 7, 2009 by Infinite

“If I were clairvoyant and knew we were going to have a sell-off of this magnitude, I would’ve been all in cash ….”

I have predicted this scenario many, many months ago and I have posted as much important information as I could find on the bond bubble. You do not have to be clairvoyant to know this.

– Formerly safe bonds are increasingly a risky investment (Chicago Tribune):
“The seemingly safest of bonds look like they’ve been transformed from security blankets into bombs.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investors have been blindsided by one financial catastrophe after another over the last 18 months, but throughout the tumult, the government bond market has been their friend.

Until now.

A brutal drop in long-dated Treasury prices has caught even the best money managers off guard — in some cases wiping out as much as 60 percent of the gains they booked in last year’s huge rally in U.S. Treasuries.

The Vanguard Group, Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price and Hoisington Investment Management have seen their government funds down anywhere between 10 percent and 30 percent, as record amounts of debt flood the market to pay for the swelling budget deficit.

What’s stunning about the portfolio declines is the swift plunge in Treasury prices within a short period of time despite the Federal Reserve’s buyback purchases intended to hold down interest rates. Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields have surged to levels not seen in more than six months, resulting in meaningful losses for many portfolios.

The 10-year T-note and 30-year Treasury bond are down 8.58 percent and 24 percent, respectively, in terms of price for the year to date.

“If I were clairvoyant and knew we were going to have a sell-off of this magnitude, I would’ve been all in cash, but I’m not,” said Van Hoisington, whose flagship Wasatch-Hoisington U.S. Treasury Fund is down more than 20 percent.

Biggest Holders Of Gilts Rather Sell Than Buy British Government Bonds: Survey

June 14, 2009June 1, 2009 by Infinite

Standard & Poor’s has cut the outlook on Britain’s AAA credit rating to “negative”

Gordon Brown, U.K. prime minister, leaves number 10 Downing Street to give money to a charitable cause, in London, U.K., on Tuesday, May 5, 2009. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg News

June 1 (Bloomberg) — U.K. debt is losing its allure for the biggest owners of gilts as the nation’s worst recession since World War II batters the government’s finances, according to a Bloomberg survey.

Eight of 10 funds, which oversee a combined $2.9 trillion, said they are either more likely to sell than buy British government bonds in the next three months or have no plans to purchase them, the survey conducted last week showed. Two said they were more inclined to buy than sell the securities.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government aims to sell a record 220 billion pounds ($355 billion) of debt in the fiscal year through March 2010 to finance bank bailouts and measures designed to drag Europe’s second-largest economy out of the recession. Standard & Poor’s cut the outlook on Britain’s AAA credit rating to “negative” from “stable” on May 21, citing the country’s growing debt burden.

The U.K. is “spending heavily to rescue the banking system,” said Yuuki Sakurai, general manager of finance and investment planning in Tokyo at Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Co., which oversees $54 billion. “The rating should be lowered.” Fukoku, one of the money managers surveyed, has no plans to buy gilts this year, he said.

On the Edge with Max Keiser (05/29/09)

May 29, 2009 by Infinite

1 of 3:

Source: YouTube

2 of 3:

Source: YouTube

3 of 3:

Source: YouTube

Dollar Is Dirt, Treasuries Are Toast, AAA Is Gone: Bloomberg’s Mark Gilbert

May 29, 2009May 29, 2009 by Infinite

May 21 (Bloomberg) — The odds on the dollar, Treasury bonds and the U.S. government’s AAA grade all heading for the dumpster are shortening.

While currency forecasting is a mug’s game and bond yields can’t quite decide whether to dive toward deflation or surge in anticipation of inflation, every time I think about that credit rating, I hear what Agent Smith in the “Matrix” movies called “the sound of inevitability.”

Several policy missteps suggest that investors should stop trusting — and lending to — the U.S. government. These include the state’s pressure on Bank of America Corp. to buy Merrill Lynch & Co.; the priority given to Chrysler LLC’s unions over the automaker’s secured creditors; and the freedom that some banks will regain to supersize executive bonuses by giving back part of the government money bolstering their balance sheets.

Currency markets have been in a weird state of what looks almost like equilibrium for the past couple of months. What’s really going on is something akin to an evenly matched tug of war that fails to move the ribbon tied around the center of the rope, giving the impression of harmony while powerful forces do silent battle until someone slips.

“All currencies are being debased dramatically by their central banks at extraordinary speeds and so in relative terms it appears there is no currency problem,” Lee Quaintance and Paul Brodsky of QB Asset Management said in a research note earlier this month. “In reality, however, paper money is highly vulnerable to a public catalyst that serves to acknowledge it is all merely vapor money.”

US Will Eventually Lose Its AAA Credit Rating: Bill Gross

May 23, 2009May 23, 2009 by Infinite

Geithner Pledges to Cut Deficit Amid Rating Concern

May 21 (Bloomberg) — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the Obama administration is committed to reducing the federal budget deficit after concerns rose that the U.S. debt rating may eventually be threatened with a downgrade.

“It’s very important that this Congress and this president put in place policies that will bring those deficits down to a sustainable level over the medium term,” Geithner said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. He added that the target is reducing the gap to 3 percent of gross domestic product or smaller, from a projected 12.9 percent this year.

The dollar, Treasuries and American stocks slumped today on concern about the U.S. government’s debt rating. Bill Gross, the co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., said the U.S. “eventually” will lose its AAA grade.

Geithner, 47, also said that the rise in yields on Treasury securities this year “is a sign that things are improving” and that “there is a little less acute concern about the depth of the recession.”

Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields jumped 17 basis points to 3.37 percent at 4:53 p.m. in New York. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index fell 1.7 percent to 888.33, and the dollar tumbled 0.8 percent to $1.3890 per euro.

Gross’s Warning

Gross said in an interview today on Bloomberg Television that while a U.S. sovereign rating cut is “certainly nothing that’s going to happen overnight,” financial markets are “beginning to anticipate the possibility.”

Britain saw its own AAA rating endangered earlier today when Standard & Poor’s lowered its outlook on the nation’s grade to “negative” from “stable,” citing a debt level approaching 100 percent of U.K. GDP.

It’s “critically important” to bring down the American deficit, Geithner said.

Borrowing puts UK’s AAA rating in danger after Budget 2009

April 24, 2009 by Infinite

The prospect of the UK losing its AAA sovereign credit rating, resulting in higher interest rates for companies and households, moved a step closer after ratings agencies voiced fears about the UK’s vast public debt burden.

The Chancellor revealed in the Budget that the national debt will reach £1.4 trillion over the next five years Photo: EPA

Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s are reviewing the UK’s rating in light of the Chancellor’s revelation in the Budget that national debt will reach £1.4 trillion over the next five years. Spain, Ireland, Greece and Portugal have already been downgraded.

Related articles:
– Taxes ‘must rise’ by £45bn a year to meet Budget 2009 target (Telegraph)
– Time to bail out of Britain? (Telegraph)

Arnaud Mares, lead analyst at Moody’s for the UK, said: “Treasury projections that public sector net borrowing will remain above 5pc of GDP five years from now… are a cause for concern. This suggests that fiscal policy will have to be tightened much further than currently envisaged. The alternative would be that the Government chooses to live with a permanently higher debt burden which would likely have rating implications over time.”

A Standard & Poor’s spokesman said: “We are looking at the details of the Budget and have no comment to make at this stage.”

Sources in the bond trading market claimed credit agencies were already stress-testing the UK again for a possible downgrade. “You have to assume the risk of a ratings downgrade has increased after this Budget. It is certainly much more likely than we thought a few months ago,” said John Wraith, head of rates strategy at RBC.

Last November, Frank Gill, S&P’s director of European sovereign ratings, said public debt above 60pc of GDP could undermine an AAA rating. At its peak in 2013, the Government is forecasting debt at 79pc of GDP.

Britain’s AAA credit rating threatened by scale of bank bail-out

February 18, 2009 by Infinite

Britain could be stripped of its prized AAA credit rating as a result of the Government’s latest bank bail-out, potentially jeopardising any economic recovery, according to rating agency Standard & Poor’s.

S&P only last month confirmed its “stable outlook” for the country’s sovereign debt but may now be forced to review the top-notch rating.

The change has been prompted by the Government’s asset protection scheme – insurance for toxic debt – which will leave the taxpayer exposed to losses on billions of pounds of bad loans made by the banks.

A downgrade would be calamitous for the country, which is on course to borrow an extra £500bn over five years, taking the national debt above £1 trillion for the first time. Should the UK lose its AAA rating or even be put on “negative watch”, the country’s interest bill would soar – putting further strain on the economy.

S&P indicated it might have to revisit the rating in evidence before the Treasury Select Committee last month. Under questioning, Barry Hancock, head of European corporate ratings, said S&P had confirmed the UK’s status on the assumption that “up to approximately 20pc of GDP in the form of bank assets could be problematic in the future”.

With annual economic output running at £1,400bn, 20pc would equate to £280bn. However, it has since emerged that the Treasury is preparing to ring-fence about £400bn of “toxic” bank debt – or 29pc of GDP – to draw a line under the financial crisis. Royal Bank of Scotland is said to want to use the scheme for £200bn alone.

Related article: RBS Said to Boost Bonuses by Up to $850 Million (Bloomberg)

A ratings downgrade or a shift to “negative watch” could be devastating for the Government’s planned economic stimulus package. As recently as last November, Frank Gill, S&P’s director of European sovereign ratings, raised concerns about the Government’s spending plans, warning that net debt above 60pc of GDP could undermine the AAA rating. Economists have forecast debt to reach 70pc of GDP by 2011.

Barclays Says 40% of Japan’s Investors See Risk of U.S. Default

February 5, 2009 by Infinite

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) — Forty percent of Japanese investors said there is a risk that the U.S. government will default on its debt, a survey published by Barclays Capital showed.

Almost 34 percent of the 66 respondents in the poll sent to Japanese institutional investors from Jan. 26 to Jan. 28 said there is a “significant” or “slight” risk that the U.S. will lose its AAA sovereign debt rating this year. Twenty-two percent said they were concerned about the credit risk of German government bonds. China surpassed Japan in September to become the biggest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries.

“Sovereign risk related to national debt has been a recent topic of discussion among market participants,” Lhamsuren Sharavdemberel, a Tokyo-based analyst at Barclays, wrote in the report published yesterday. She confirmed the details today.

Fitch Cuts Russia’s Debt Rating to ‘BBB’

February 4, 2009 by Infinite

Remember that these are the same rating agencies that rated a collection of highly risky loans with ‘AAA’, making them appear ultra-safe.

Fitch Ratings on Wednesday downgraded Russia’s sovereign rating to ‘BBB’ and said further cuts were possible due to low commodity prices, high capital outflows, melting reserves and corporate debt problems.

Fitch’s downgrade follows one from Standard & Poor’s in December, making it the second ratings cut for Russia since the end of the last major financial crisis a decade ago.

On the Fitch scale, Russia would now need to be cut just two more notches to become ‘junk’ rather than ‘investment grade.’

The downgrade pushed the euro down to session lows versus the dollar below $1.29.

Portugal suffers S&P rating cut

January 21, 2009 by Infinite

Portugal on Wednesday became the third eurozone economy in two weeks to suffer a credit rating downgrade because of its failure to tackle deteriorating public finances.

Standard & Poor’s decision to reduce Portugal’s long-term ratings to AA minus, six notches below the highest triple A rating, followed downgrades of Spain on Monday and Greece last week. Ireland, which was put on negative outlook earlier in the month, could follow soon.

The move underlines the growing strains in the eurozone as the weaker economies, mainly in the south, struggle to stay competitive in the worsening economic climate without the option of devaluing their currencies.

The extra cost for Portugal, Spain, Greece and Ireland of issuing government bonds compared with that of Germany, Europe’s biggest economy has risen this week. This is because investors believe the continent’s smaller economies may suffer longer and deeper recessions.

The cost of insuring their government bonds against default through credit default swaps has risen to record highs, too, with investors judging the assets of these countries to be increasingly risky.

Global Economic Crisis Accelerating

January 19, 2009January 19, 2009 by Infinite

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama waves after speaking during the “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial” event in Washington on Jan. 18, 2009. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News

– Obama Issues Call to Service to Help Repair Nation (Bloomberg):
Obama is using the latest state of the art manipulating techniques. Don’t fall for this puppet of the elite, rather listen to some of the few people – like Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, Marc Faber and Jim Rogers – that are telling you the truth:
Paul Craig Roberts On The U.S. Leadership: “They Are Criminals” – The Potential Here Is Far Worse Than The Great Depression or Peter Schiff: We are the United States of Madoff

More change: Obama Reaches Out for McCain’s Counsel (New York Times)

– California Finds Public-Works Spending No Unemployment Cure-All (Bloomberg):
“What infrastructure spending can do is bolster employment in a group of industries, like construction, with workers who are ready to go,” said Brad Kemp, director of regional research at Beacon Economics in Los Angeles. “What it can’t do is stop the unemployment rate from rising currently because there are a lot of forces coming at consumers, who are holding back on spending.” California is totally broke: Here

– ! Bonds tumble as Government admits no cap on taxpayer risk (Telegraph)

– Brazil Cut Record 654946 Registered Jobs in December (Bloomberg)

– Brussels sees Eurozone economy shrink 1.9% (Financial Times)

– Taxpayers are spending over $1 billion to send refined fuel to the Israeli military — at a time when Israel doesn’t need it and America does (Salon)

– Spain Downgraded by S&P as Slump Swells Budget Gap (Bloomberg):
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) — Spain had its AAA sovereign credit rating removed by Standard & Poor’s in the second downgrade of a euro-region government in five days, as the country’s first recession in 15 years swelled the budget deficit.

– China GDP Growth May Cool to Slowest Pace in 7 Years (Bloomberg)

– Ruble Drops to Pre-1998 Crisis Low on 6th Devaluation This Year (Bloomberg):
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) — The ruble fell below the weakest level seen in the 1998 Russian crisis after the central bank devalued for the sixth time in seven days to protect reserves.

– Fifty jobseekers chasing every vacancy in some parts of the country (Telegraph)

– Treasury Yields Flattened as Fed Fights to Cut Mortgage Rates (Bloomberg):
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke helped spark a rally by reiterating Jan. 13 at the London School of Economics that he’s considering buying long-term Treasuries to reduce borrowing rates as the recession deepens.
(Bernanke helped to create the ultimate Bond Bubble: Here, here and here.)

– Bonds no safer than houses (The Financial Standard)

– Denmark agrees on 13.4-bln-euro line of credit to banks: govt (AFP)

– How the Treasury Bubble Will Burst and Why (Seeking Alpha)

– Investor puts pressure on HSBC to let US sub-prime unit go bankrupt (Times)

– Tory chief’s firm cost councils £470m (Independent)

– RBS on the brink as shares plummet by 69% and City is warned: ‘You’re about to become
Iceland-on-Thames’ (Mail Online)

– RBS ready to write off £1bn loan to Russian oligarch (Scotsman)

– RBS Plummets Amid Concern Bank May Be Nationalized (Bloomberg)

– RBS shares dive 70% on mounting debt fears (Times Online)

– Tax rise for rich won’t make society fair, says Mandelson (Guardian)

– More Americans Joining Military as Jobs Dwindle (New York Times)

– Circuit City to close remaining 567 stores in US (Los Angeles Times):
The failure of the No. 2 electronics retailer means the loss of 34,000 jobs.

– BASF warns of possible job and production cuts (Houston Chronicle)

Standard & Poor’s said it may cut Spain’s credit rating; Euro Weakens to One-Month Low on ECB Outlook

January 13, 2009 by Infinite

The following picture depicts the future Euro/US$ exchange rate.
The US dollar will be destroyed.

A euro banknote is arranged for a photograph atop U.S. bills, in New York, Dec. 30, 2008. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News

Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) — The euro weakened for a third day versus the dollar, reaching a one-month low, as traders added to bets the European Central Bank will reduce interest rates, decreasing the appeal of the region’s assets.

The 16-nation currency also declined to the lowest level in more than a month against the yen after Standard & Poor’s said it may cut Spain’s credit rating. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition said yesterday it will spend 50 billion euros ($66.6 billion) to support Europe’s largest economy. New Zealand’s dollar fell to a four-week low after S&P said it may cut the country’s foreign-currency credit rating.

Related article: New Zealand’s AA+ Credit Rating May Be Cut, S&P Says (Bloomberg)

“There is more than enough room for the euro to fall further,” said Hideki Amikura, deputy general manager of foreign exchange in Tokyo at Nomura Trust and Banking Co., a unit of Japan’s largest brokerage. “The focus of the currency market is how far rates will fall in Europe, because the ECB is behind the curve compared with other central banks.”

Motorola downgraded to junk status

December 6, 2008 by Infinite

Ratings agency downgrades Motorola on worries about the impact of the global financial crisis on mobile phones

Motorola fell into junk territory yesterday after Standard & Poor’s (S&P) downgraded the telecoms company.

The ratings agency cut Motorola’s rating by two notches to BB+ from BBB, putting the company one notch below investment grade.

S&P blamed problems in Motorola’s mobile phone business, saying that the ratings action reflected “continual operational challenges … which are not likely to be reversed over the intermediate term”.

Toyota woes deepen with rating downgrade

November 26, 2008 by Infinite

Toyota has lost its top credit rating

Toyota Motor, the world’s biggest automaker and a towering icon of Japanese industrial power, has been stripped of its AAA credit rating under the darkening global economic storm.

The downgrade, said analysts at Fitch Ratings, effectively passes sentence on the entire worldwide auto industry, showing that the business of building cars can no longer produce a single player with the sort of cast-iron corporate resilience of Exxon Mobil or Johnson & Johnson.

“This crisis is demonstrating that the auto industry cannot support a triple-A rating,” said Frederic Gits, a Tokyo-based credit analyst at Fitch Ratings, which issued the downgrade earlier today and declared the auto-industry’s problems “substantial and fundamental”.

Fitch Ratings’ downgrade of Toyota’s unsecured debt to AA deals a stunning blow to Japanese corporate pride, but reflects “severe” turmoil across world car markets and the company’s own spectacular profits warning earlier this month.

To demonstrate the extent of the problem, brokers in Tokyo have recently started circulating aerial photographs of a military airfield in Oxfordshire that has become a colossal warehouse for thousands of unsold cars.

US May Lose Its ‘AAA’ Rating

November 11, 2008 by Infinite

The United States may be on course to lose its ‘AAA’ rating due to the large amount of debt it has accumulated, according to Martin Hennecke, senior manager of private clients at Tyche.

Source: YouTube

“The U.S. might really have to look at a default on the bankruptcy reorganization of the present financial system” and the bankruptcy of the government is not out of the realm of possibility, Hennecke said.

“In the United States there is already a funding crisis, and they will have to sell a lot more bonds next year to fund the bailout packages that have already been signed off,” Hennecke told CNBC.

In order to solve or stem the economic slowdown, Hennecke suggested the US would have to radically reduce spending across all sectors and recall all its troops from around the world.

As for a stimulus package, there is not much of an industry left to stimulate back into life, Hennecke said.

10 Nov 2008 | 07:49 AM ET

Source: cnbc

Credit-Rating Companies ‘Sold Soul,’ Employees Said

October 22, 2008 by Infinite

Deven Sharma (R), president of Standard & Poor’s and Raymond McDaniel, chairman and CEO of Moody’s Corporation listen to remarks by committee members as they display a quote on a screen during the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on “Credit Rating Agencies and the Financial Crisis,” on Capitol Hill in Washington October 22, 2008.

Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) — Employees at Moody’s Investors Service told executives that issuing dubious creditworthy ratings to mortgage-backed securities made it appear they were incompetent or “sold our soul to the devil for revenue,” according to e-mails obtained by U.S. House investigators.

The e-mail was one of several documents made public today at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in Washington, which is reviewing the role played by Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings in the global credit freeze.

“The story of the credit rating agencies is a story of colossal failure,” Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, said at the hearing. “The result is that our entire financial system is now at risk.”

Moody’s and S&P in recent months had to downgrade thousands of mortgage-backed securities, many of which were originally given top AAA ratings, as delinquencies on the underlying loans soared well beyond the companies’ estimates and home values fell faster than they expected.

WaMu shares plummet 25%

September 25, 2008 by Infinite

WaMu Said to Approach Blackstone as Bailout Debated

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) — Washington Mutual Inc.’s options may be dwindling as potential bidders shy away from making an offer because it’s not clear how much the proposed $700 billion U.S. bank rescue package will benefit the Seattle-based lender.

Five banks that were considering bids, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., have failed to make an offer in the week since WaMu put itself up for sale. WaMu next approached Carlyle Group and Blackstone Group LP, two people briefed on the matter said. Those talks are preliminary, and hinge on the government’s role in helping WaMu, which faces an estimated $19 billion in bad loans, the people said, speaking anonymously because the discussions are private.

“A WaMu deal is likely frozen until the bailout gets worked out,” said Steven Kaplan, a finance professor at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. “People aren’t in a hurry to make any decision until they know what’s coming out of Washington.”

WaMu is under increasing pressure to strike a deal as its stock sags and ratings companies pummel its debt. Standard & Poor’s yesterday cut WaMu’s rating for the second time in nine days, dropping it to CCC from BB-. WaMu’s regulator, the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which guarantees customer deposits, have declined to comment.