Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Dumb rating agencies have no clue!

The ratings agencies just don't get it. There is never a payments risk with a nation that issues its own currency. There might be an exchange risk, but the debts will get paid.

The ratings agencies did the same, stupid thing back in 2002 when they downgraded Japan's credit rating to the level of Botswana. That action had absolutely no impact on Japan's ability to pay its debt, or to the country's creditors. Interest rates on Japanese bonds remained near zero and the yen hardly moved at all.





Iceland Debt Rating Cut by Fitch Amid Glitnir Bailout (Update1) 

By Benedikt Kammel

Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Iceland's sovereign debt rating was reduced by Fitch Ratings, the second downgrade in as many days, after the Atlantic island's government agreed to bail out Glitnir Bank hf. 

Fitch cut its long-term foreign currency rating to A- from A+, and said the new rating remains on review for another cut. Fitch also cut its ratings on four Icelandic banks. Moody's placed Iceland's Aa1 government bond rating on review for a downgrade today. Standard & Poor's yesterday reduced Iceland's foreign-currency debt rating one level to A- and said it may lower it further. 

``The risks to macroeconomic stability and sovereign creditworthiness arising from distress in the banking system have materially increased,'' Fitch Ratings Director Paul Rawkins said in a statement today. 

Iceland's government yesterday said it will take control of Glitnir, the country's third-largest commercial lender, by investing 600 million euros ($859 million) for a 75 percent stake.

2 comments:

Alex Higgins said...

This is a JOKE.

THIS WHOLE CRISIS IS BEING CAUSED BY FEAR MONGERING OF THE US GOVERNMENT.

Simple crowd mentality. Fire a shotgun in the middle of a busy city(Bush gives prime time speech) and the whole heard will go stampeding.

The Government is holding the taxpayer hostage and demanding a $700 billion ransom. Banks are the hostages and the government is using credit agencies (S&P and Moody's) to kill the hostages one by one until we agree to pay.

This bill isn't even going to help our banks. China and Middle East banks are going to transfer their bad debt into American banks and sell it to FED. Then the taxpayer is put on the hook for it.

Home prices are only down 15% from their peak, but the banks trading them are down 60-70%. There is no correlation here. ALL FEAR. Fear caused by the FED.

This needs to be stopped. visit my blog and learn how to fight it. blog.alexanderhiggins.com

mike norman said...

I would say ignorance is causing this, not fear mongering. The ignorance is coming from everywhere--even the Fed--but mostly from ordinary people.