“The deeper reason for France’s downgrading, however, is simply that France has been broke for years. And the real question is: Why has it taken so long for S & P and others to take good note of it ? After all, it is an open secret.”
Most of Europe (except maybe Germany, Holland, Norway, and Sweden) is broke. All of the social-welfare states are bankrupt and I think most of the leftists and liberals in the banking community just didn’t want to admit it. They had to start taking firm actions against the countries they so yearned for. Now with Greece about to go down in flames, along with Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Iceland, they just don’t want to admit that “La Belle France” was just as bankrupt as the rest of them. And remember, these are the same ratings agencies that didn’t have a clue that we were headed for financial disaster in 2008. Some economic analysts they have there. Now they have to face the ugly facts about countries like France and actually DO THEIR JOBS by downgrading a country that should have been downgraded years ago. Because if they screw it up this time, then nobody is going to believe the ratings agencies anymore.
