At Risk Eurozone Sovereign Credit Ratings
[Sovereign debt: Bonds issued by a national government in a foreign currency, in order to finance the issuing country's growth.
Sovereign Credit Rating: The credit rating of a country or sovereign entity. Sovereign credit ratings give investors insight into the level of risk associated with investing in a particular country, including political risks.]
Moody's says Eurozone crisis conditions place all member state credit ratings at risk.
It warned 87 European banks to expect downgrades. Moreover, Fitch revised America's debt outlook to negative. Nonetheless, its AAA rating is unchanged. For how long is another issue.
At the same time, Italy's La Stampa said IMF intervention will rescue the country. No source was given, and Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy's Financial Times, didn't report it. It makes the claim all the more suspect.
IMF's funding capacity gives it $387 billion to contribute. It can also raise another $250 billion from willing contributor countries and has other tools.
At issue is, will IMF use all its firepower for Italy? Will member states lend it more? Will bilateral loans be sought from countries like China, and/or will the European Central Bank (ECB) supply additional funding?
Two Financial Times articles appealed to Germany to save Europe and Italians to be patriotic and buy debt.
Imagine asking Italian workers to rescue the country that sold them out. Imagine asking Germany's $3.5 trillion economy to rescue other Eurozone ones with a combined $9 trillion GDP.
It's high time solutions accepted reality. Europe's monetary union failed. Combining 17 dissimilar economies under one system was doomed from day one. It was just a matter of time and circumstances. They've now arrived.
