The French credit downgrade has been postponed almost as long as the United States’ downgrade has been postponed. Expect to see S&P’s downgrade of France next. Moody’s seems to be playing politics with their downgrades but then Warren Buffet is a major stockholder in this “credit rating” company.
Anyone care to guess why S&P’s downgrade of banks after the close of the bell yesterday has now resulted in gains of over 6% today for major US banks? The Fed’s bailout of the EU appears to be another TARP bailout of our banks’ leverage of EU derivatives. The collapse of the EU will collapse our dollar: this action by the Fed only assures it will happen faster.
David DeGerolamo
Egan Jones Downgrades France From AA- To A; Negative Watch, Sees Debt/GDP Rising From 91% to 117% By 2013
Only the first of many French downgrades, this time by the rating agency which is always ahead of the pack. And like in Italy’s case, EJ sees a soaring French debt/GDP, rising to 117% in 2013 from 91% currently.
Summary note:
Disastrous trend and the worst has yet to come. Over the past two fiscal years, the Republic of France’s debt has grown by 21% from EUR1.32 trillion to EUR1.59 trillion. Meanwhile, FYE GDP declined slightly from EUR2.13 trillion as of 2008 to EUR1.93 trillion as of 2010. As a result, debt to GDP rose from 61.8% in 2008 to 82.5% in 2010 and is near 90% currently. As the EU growth slows, and France’s unemployment rises, budget pressures will rise. An item which is hard to quantify but is a growing concern is the health of France’s banks; the assets of the three largest banks equal 240% of France’s GDP. Given France’s propensity for supporting its banks, France might soon be confronting a substantial additional liability.
For the most part, over the past 18 months France has been exempted from the rise in funding costs. However, as the crisis evolves, we expect that France will be pressured. The deterioration in France’s credit metrics combined with the needed supported for France’s banks are likely to pressure the country. A major catalyst is likely to be the year end financials for France’s banks; watch for a significant support program to be announced over the next couple of weeks.
Full note – link
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Never mind their debt -- what’s vexing them too is that at night they produce about 50% more electricity via their nuclear power stations than is needed. What a waste (you can’t switch nuclear on and off at will -- it has to produce continuously). And such country can be busted with a small shaped charge against one atomic power station. Shows how generous Ghaddafi was not to try and bomb them back to the stone age.