Global Economic Crisis

In a move that is no longer a surprise, one of the leading credit rating agencies, Moody’s, did the downgrade routine. This time it was two leading French Banks; Societe Generale and Credit Agricole. The cause was their significant exposure to sovereign debt from crisis-ravaged and virtually insolvent Greece. Moody’s made clear that these two French banks may be due for future ratings downgrading.

The Eurozone politicians, especially in France and Germany, are in a panic over Greece and its insoluble debt crisis. They are currently doing what they have done repeatedly since the crisis erupted; reassuring the markets that the brilliant, highly competent politicians in Europe have the situation under control, and Greece will not default. At this point, no one with an iota of common sense believes them. Furthermore, the markets are increasingly aware of-and frightened by- the near certainty of a Greek debt default, perhaps followed by Portugal, Ireland, and in a worst case scenario, Spain and Italy. What this means is that the major banks in Europe, in particular France and Germany, are sitting on a mountain of worthless assets. This crisis is far from over, and the ratings agencies are far from done with the downgrading.

According to the Central Bank of Ireland, the cost of bailing out the Irish banks from the cost of their reckless business  decisions has increased by another $34 billion, on top of approximately $65 billion already spent. This news coincided with Fitch announcing another downgrade on Irish government debt. The current bill Irish taxpayers are being forced to swallow for covering the cost of the follies of the bankers is now a staggering seventy billion euros, or more than $100 billion dollars.

Hank Calenti, responsible for bank credit research at Societe Generale, said it will take another twenty years for the Irish people to pay off the money borrowed by Dublin to cover the cost of the decision by the Irish government to guarantee all the financial obligations of the private banks in the country. This means that every man, woman and child currently living in the Irish Republic is responsible for more than $20,000 in loan repayments to save their banking elite from the cost of their mistakes. Instead, it is the Irish people who will cover the losses, without any vote or input on the matter. Thus, in the wake of the global financial and economic crisis of 2008, this is what passes for Western democracy.