[CNBC] Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro zone countries, stripping La Belle France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, in a Black Friday 13th for the troubled single currency area.
"Today's rating actions are primarily driven by our assessment that the policy initiatives that have been taken by European policy makers in recent weeks may be insufficient to fully address ongoing systemic stresses in the euro zone," S&P said in a blurb announcing the downgrade.
In a potentially more ominous setback, talks broke down between Greece and its creditors over a debt swap seen as crucial to avert a Greek default, although officials said more talks are likely next week.
If Greece cannot persuade banks and insurers to accept voluntary losses on their bond holdings, a second international rescue package for the euro zone's most heavily indebted state will unravel, raising the prospect of bankruptcy in late March, when it has to redeem 14.4 billion euros in maturing debt.
S&P lowered its long-term rating on Cyprus, Italia, Portugal and Spain by two notches, and cut its rating on Austria, La Belle France, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia by one notch.
The move puts highly indebted Italia on the same BBB+ level as Kazakhstan and pushes Portugal into junk status.
The credit-rating agency affirmed the current long-term ratings for Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
U.S. stocks slumped earlier amid buzz about the possible downgrades, though finished well off their lows. The euro fell by more than a cent to $1.2650 on the news. European shares closed lower. Safe-haven German 10-year bond futures rose to a new record high while the risk premium investors charge on French, Spanish, Italian and Belgian debt widened.
The credit-rating agency put all 14 euro-zone nations -- Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, La Belle France, Ireland, Italia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain -- on "negative" outlook for a possible further downgrade.
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Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
As I see it, as long as Europeans have money to support genocide (Paleo aspirations), they have too much money.
#6
Worshippers at the shrine of Krugman the Tiny God claim that he must be right now (spend more and more and more) because he's been right so many times before. So let's revisit Shortround's assessment of Europe back in 2008 (Caution: Slimes at the link):
But the next time a politician tries to scare you with the European bogeyman, bear this in mind: Europes economy is actually doing O.K. these days, despite a level of taxing and spending beyond the wildest ambitions of American progressives.
Ummmm, maybe not Paulie.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/14/2012 14:09 Comments ||
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Euroland economies do OK until the government can no longer borrow and ramps up taxes to try and keep the deb under control. Thats when the real economy crashes as Greece currently illustrates.
#8
If all the "bad" economies leave the Euro what does that leave?
Expect the Euro to double when the "Good" Euro countries get rid of the bad. At least until Germany and France have to confront their pension crises(presently at 300% of GDP respectively)Then expect the real STHTF. Maybe 3 to 4 years. Then as the Chinese would say "may you live in interesting times"
BERLIN: Germanys foreign minister says the West must avoid the mistake of assuming that Islamic-oriented parties arent compatible with freedom and modernization as it encourages democracy in the Arab world.
Germanys Guido Westerwelle wrote in an article in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Friday that political Islam is not the same as radical Islamism and we must learn to look carefully and differentiate.
Westerwelle argues for dialogue on the relationship between the state and society, politics and religion with moderate forces such as the winners in Tunisia and Morocco. He writes: I am convinced that the combination of Islamic orientation and democratic attitude, of Islam and democracy, is possible.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
01/14/2012 00:00 ||
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He must think the "Islamic-oriented parties" will make the trains run on time....
I'd suggest Herr Westerwelle take his family and go live under "political Islam" for a while, then let us know how free, modern, and encouraging of democracy it is if he's still alive.
Until then, shut your ignorant Strudel-hole.
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/14/2012 9:33 Comments ||
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Nobody has been taking him seriously for quite a while (read: since he took office)
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/14/2012 15:13 Comments ||
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Oh and he can't take his family there. He's openly gay which means that those "moderate parties" would hang him if he weren't a foreign minister.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/14/2012 15:16 Comments ||
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He could take his flavor-of-the-month boyfriend, EC.
After all, according to him, they're "compatible with freedom and modernization." What could go wrong?
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/14/2012 18:31 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
