Greece Cut to Junk at S&P as Contagion Spreads

[The Village Idiot]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1268630/Greece-hit-new-riots-pressure-grows-quit-euro.html



Support for the bail-out of debt-ridden Greece was in doubt last night, leaving the country on the brink of financial meltdown as top German politicians said it  should be forced to quit the euro.

Riots erupting during workers’ protests over planned public spending cuts, just hours after Greek Premier George Papandreou sought emergency £35billion of loans from eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

The Greek government was finally forced to ask for international help after the cost of its borrowing spiralled to a new high, making it prohibitively expensive to borrow money to service existing debts.

excerpt

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1268630/Greece-hit-new-riots-pressure-grows-quit-euro.html#ixzz0m4ipp2Sy

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Can anyone tell me the difference between a communist peasant and a slave?

If not it should be legal to sell people who want to live under communism.

[BlueStateSaint]

Oooooh boy.  This is gonna get interesting.


Greece Cut to Junk at S&P as Contagion Spreads
(Update2)

By Emma Ross-Thomas and Andrew Davis



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.

The rest is at:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3myVNxY7eto&pos=1

What's the Chinese curse?  "May you live in interesting times."  Interesting times, indeed.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Obama: Doing it to America like they do it in Greece

[thundley4]

Obama: Doing it to America like they do it in Greece

0Bama likes it Greek style?

[DumbAss Tanker]

0Bama likes it Greek style?

As long as the U.S. taxpayers are the 'Catcher,' yes.

[The Village Idiot]

They should cut the US to junk status. lol.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Not really FGL, you can think of Greek debt instruments are based on an economy run about like California's except seven or eight years farther down the drain without a fix, with even more expensive social entitlements, a much weaker tax base, and no Fed to even offer to bail them out.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

0Bama likes it Greek style?

'Chelle taught him to take it like a man.

[BlueStateSaint]

Not really FGL, you can think of Greek debt instruments are based on an economy run about like California's except seven or eight years farther down the drain without a fix, with even more expensive social entitlements, a much weaker tax base, and no Fed to even offer to bail them out.

Gotta agree with DAT here.  Prices for basic things would skyrocket overnight.  A general panic would overtake the country--Hell, if the US could be cut to "junk" status, any country could--and probably would.  You do not want to go there.  If you don't have a firearm, you'd be screwed.  Even if you did have one, if you didn't have the will to use it (something that I think a lot of lefties who own firearms lack), it would be useless.

[littlelamb]

'Chelle taught him to take it like a man.

That's because she wears the pants in the relationship

[Chris_]

That's because she wears the pants in the relationship

....and a strap on....

[NHSparky]

Stuart Varney had an interesting take when he said there's actually an intermediate step in the expression, "The government big enough to give you everything is big enough to take it away."  Where the Greeks are is a government that gave their workers everything, but wasn't powerful enough to take it away, which is where they are now.

Sadly, something tells me that CA IS in fact going down that same route, but the Feds might actually be taking steps to ensure it's "strong enough" to take those things away when in fact it comes to that point.

[BlueStateSaint]

And now it spreads.  It's an AP article, so all I'll give is the web addy:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Spain-debt-downgraded-by-apf-1816859080.html?x=0&.v=27

[bijou]

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has downgraded the sovereign credit rating of Spain to ’AA’.

The ratings agency has downgraded Spain from ‘AA+’ after a reassessment of its macro economy. It says the move away from a credit-fuelled economic growth will mean Spain struggles to keep its public finances in check.

http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/investments/news/sp-downgrades-spain/1010941.article

[Hawkgirl]

Not surprising....and expected.


I hope american voters are watching and taking notes.

[The Village Idiot]

They still do not get it.

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/portugal-finance.4e0

LISBON) - Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates on Friday urged the European Union to react against a market "attack" following downgrades in the credit ratings of Greece, Portugal and Spain this week.

"This attack is directed against the European project," Socrates said during a parliamentary debate. "This attack, without foundation, is targeting the euro as a whole and the sovereign debt of several countries," he added.

"Europe should take measures and go from words to actions," he said, stressing in particular the importance of ensuring that credit rating agencies are regulated in such a way as to make them more independent.

Socrates also said the government on May 27 would submit to parliament for debate a draft law allowing Portugal to aid Greece as part of a bailout by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

"This law will enable us to lend money to Greece so they are not the victims of speculators. This is how we will defend the European project," he said.

Portugal is considered by many investors to be the next weak link in the eurozone after Greece as it is also heavily indebted. Experts say, however, that Portugal's problems are far smaller than Greece's.

[The Village Idiot]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8661385.stm


Trouble erupted as a group of protesters tried to storm the Greek parliament
At least three people have been killed in the Greek capital as protesters set fire to a bank during a general strike over planned austerity measures.

The fire brigade said three bodies were found inside the bank in Athens. Another building is also on fire.

Petrol bombs were thrown at police who responded with pepper spray, tear gas and stun grenades.

Protesters are angered by spending cuts and tax rises planned in return for a 110bn euro (£95bn) bail-out for Greece.

Parliament is to vote on the measures by the end of the week.

Measures include wage freezes, pension cuts and tax rises. They aim to achieve fresh budget cuts of 30bn euros over three years, with the goal of cutting Greece's public deficit to less than 3% of GDP by 2014. It currently stands at 13.6%.

A mass rally attended by thousands of people took place in central Athens before some protests began to turn violent

Outside parliament, a group of protesters rushed up a flight of steps, taunting MPs to come out and calling them "thieves".

Riot police forced them back with pepper spray, tear gas and stun grenades.

[The Village Idiot]

Live webcam

http://www.businessinsider.com/live-watch-the-greek-riots-right-here-2010-5

never mind, Rooters did something else with the feed

[thundley4]

Coming soon to a city near you.  Just wait until the Debt Commission decides that entitlements must be cut along with massive tax increases here.

[debk]

Coming soon to a city near you.  Just wait until the Debt Commission decides that entitlements must be cut along with massive tax increases here.

Yep....our economy is following the path of Greece, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Portugal....

Unless Congress and Obama pull their collective heads out, and stop this rampant spending of non-existant money....we will be in the same situation.

[The Village Idiot]

Coming soon to a city near you.  Just wait until the Debt Commission decides that entitlements must be cut along with massive tax increases here.

cities burning to the ground, martial law all over the place. Protests everyday.

lovely, I'm sure. /s

[The Village Idiot]

STEYN: Our own Greek tragedy
Obamanomics hastens the day of reckoning

What’s happening in the developed world today isn’t so very hard to understand: The 20th century Bismarckian welfare state has run out of people to stick it to. In America, the feckless insatiable boobs in Washington, Sacramento, Albany and elsewhere are screwing over our kids and grandkids. In Europe, they’ve reached the next stage in social democratic evolution: There are no kids or grandkids to screw over. The United States has a fertility rate of around 2.1, or just over two kids per couple. Greece has a fertility rate of about 1.3: 10 grandparents have six kids have four grandkids – i.e., the family tree is upside down. Demographers call 1.3 “lowest-low” fertility – the point from which no society has ever recovered. And compared to Spain and Italy, Greece has the least worst fertility rate in Mediterranean Europe.

[The Village Idiot]

http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/nyheter/utrikes/article7086788.ab

Its tense!!

[The Village Idiot]

pre-riot