Quote Originally Posted by Hazir View Post
I found the comment of that Pimco CEO interesting. What it boiled down to is that the rating agencies are really at the core of this crisis. Again now with Greece; they gave Greek bonds a way too positive rating in the past and now are by their overly late downgradings adding to the panic.

The funny thing about all this is that I don't even know if I was/am right to strive for an absolute minimum in indebtedness.
That's what I've been saying for a few pages now, about the Big Three raters. Too much trust and credibility was bestowed on them, for too long. Remember they'd rate a cow if it came across their desk.

It turns out they've added odd "political capital" to their analyses, giving ratings based on "expectations of faith" in large economies (like the US with the Fed and Treasury, the eurozone with ECB and IMF) and currency trades (euro-dollar). Greek bonds were over-rated because they assumed an automatic bail-out if ever there was trouble.

I've read some angry views toward Merkel and Germany, for being slow to act when "all of Europe is at stake". But I think this has been good, to bring out what's really rotten and where.