Fitch downgraded Italy, Spain and Slovenia by two notches and Belgium and Cyprus by one notch. Fitch took no action on France's AAA credit rating despite S&P downgrading the country two weeks ago. The rating agency warned that the eurozone crisis would only be resolved "as and when there is broad economic recovery" and with "greater fiscal integration". It was also being reported last night that the German government wants Greece to hand over control of tax and spending decisions to a 'budget commissioner' appointed by the rest of the eurozone, before the country gets its second bail-out. The budget commissioner would have to power to veto decisions made by the Greek government, according to a proposal seen by the Financial Times, marking a significant step-up in the EU's powers over the sovereign governments of member states The Greeks are going to fall out of the euro whether the Germans appoint an economic Gauleiter or not. Anybody who lent them money is not going to get any of it back from the Greeks. If they took out insurance then maybe but it won't be from the Greeks. Any company that insured that debt should take a good look at its management. How long will it take until people realize that the 4th Reich is just around the corner and the politicians in Germany are getting bolder and bolder. Talk about a jackboot on a face , we're nearly there.I wonder how long the rest of Europe will tolerate Germany's stealth pseudo=Nazi plan to take over the continent and make it a big Deutschland. Merkel doesn't look like Hitler but underneath her aims are similar.
7 comments:
Just how long before the huge Greek military decides its had enough of being 'invaded' and starts to round up the criminals like monti etc! It was NOT the fault of the people that the economy is in ruins but they are paying the price! The EU determination that 'you can vote but if you vote the wrong way then you will have to vote again until we get it right' is at the heart of this! So to is it in this country that which ever party we vote for we get the EU - we cannot opt out without a referendum - which we will never be given! In these circumstances we have to take back democracy yet again- they are unleashing a new era of what authorities will term 'terrorism' but the people will consider right! Lets say it once more ... the people did not cause these 'debts' and will not be enslaved by them - they were caused by criminals who right now are posturing in just the same way as the German 'leaders' in 1939 - they will go the same way!
Oh dear, oh dear. The Greeks are still bankrupt. Spain is not working with over 5million able bodied people unemployed, including over 40% of all 18-24 year olds; and Davos seems to have been going on all year rather than 3 days.
French owned ratings agency did not downgrade France - the only surprise is that they did not downgrade the UK.
never cease to be amazed at the inate stupidity of highly educated people.
The Eurocrats want to impose rule over a sovereign country,is'nt that what we are trying to do in Iraq,Afganistan,Iran. have our leaders learnt nothing from history, don't answer that ,of course they have not
Foreign control of internal finances has worked before, of course (Egypt under Lord Cromer; the Ottoman Empire's customs, etc). But it does tend to need an occupation army (if not always) so the "beneficiaries" tend to be rather less grateful than the controllers expect.
I can sympathise with the German frustrations behind this proposal. Ordinary Greeks may be suffering, but the country is still wasting vast amounts on defence, giving hand-outs to the Orthodox Church which does not need them and is the country's largest tax evader, etc. The Greek Government seems to regard the sufferings of its people as simply a good tactical manoeuvre for its traditional blackmail bargaining positions. That shouldn't be allowed to work.
What this means, I think, is that while there might be a deal on the private sector debt by Monday, there won't be a credible deal on the official part of the bail-out. And of course the PSI bondholders may have agreed in principle to their haircut, but they won't sign up to it until the official part has been agreed.
Which means that we shall still be looking at the possibility of default in March, and countries like Portugal will be even more spooked. I can't see any players in this game who can be easily type-cast as the "good guys"
In this case, the glimmer of hope was that private (not public) bondholders were going to just write-off at least half the money owed to them and would get the rest of their money back over a longer period. If I were advising people on where to put their money I would tell them that these weaker eurozone countries are not as good a risk as they were previously thought.
What's to stop Spain and the rest from taking the same route?
Yes, haircut, bazooka, firewall etc are a smokescreen, and clearly successful ones. The biggest smoke screen however is the Euro.
The debt is a symptom of the problem facing the World and that is all electorates vote for 'free money', i.e. the politician that will promise low taxes and better benefits.
The Euro is just a unit of measurment, whatever the currency the defecit, the difference between taxation revenue and expenditure would be the same.
Default is not an option for Greece as they would still need to borrow to pay their pensions, benefits, public sector salaries etc, but would not find any lenders.
Spain is probably the best example of the catastrophic failure of European Soclialism and the utter misery it brings to its people.
25% unemployment. Yes 1 in 4 people
Free cars for public sector employees
500K salaries for Air Traffic Controllers
Retirement at 50 for public sector employees
Free private health care for public sector employees
35 days holiday, 17 bank holidays, 27 days sickness (average), public sector employees.
And the list could go on and on. We would have caught them up by 2015 if Labour had been returned to power in 2010
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