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Fitch Ratings (one of the "Big Three" ratings agencies along with Moody's and Standard & Poor's) said it believes Italy is the biggest threat to the euro. Fitch cited the nation's unsustainable debt load, high borrowing costs, and the European Union's lack of a plan to keep Italy's crisis from spreading.
We would add to that near-double-digit unemployment (the government reports 8.6%… we bet it's much higher) and no growth prospects – unless you count Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti's "magic jobs." Oh, and the country's largest bank, UniCredit, is insolvent. All of this leads David Riley, Fitch's head of global sovereign ratings, to say his company will likely downgrade Italy by the end of January.
Fitch currently rates Italy an A-plus. So according to the ratings agency, an A-plus credit rating entails no possible way of repaying your debt, 7.13% borrowing costs, and the plan to sell another 440 billion euro in government bonds in 2012 – just to survive. An A-plus credit rating, in Fitch's mind, also exists solely on central bank subsidies (via direct sovereign purchases and loans to banks).
It's this last reason – European governments not bailing Italy out hard enough – that really scares Fitch. The lack of a "credible firewall" to keep Italy's contagion from spreading is "one of the reasons why we have Italy on watch negative, it's one of the reasons why when we conclude that review, there is a significant chance [Italy's] rating will fall," Riley said.
comincio a pensare che i Maya non erano cosi fuori con la loro predizione in merito al 2012
We would add to that near-double-digit unemployment (the government reports 8.6%… we bet it's much higher) and no growth prospects – unless you count Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti's "magic jobs." Oh, and the country's largest bank, UniCredit, is insolvent. All of this leads David Riley, Fitch's head of global sovereign ratings, to say his company will likely downgrade Italy by the end of January.
Fitch currently rates Italy an A-plus. So according to the ratings agency, an A-plus credit rating entails no possible way of repaying your debt, 7.13% borrowing costs, and the plan to sell another 440 billion euro in government bonds in 2012 – just to survive. An A-plus credit rating, in Fitch's mind, also exists solely on central bank subsidies (via direct sovereign purchases and loans to banks).
It's this last reason – European governments not bailing Italy out hard enough – that really scares Fitch. The lack of a "credible firewall" to keep Italy's contagion from spreading is "one of the reasons why we have Italy on watch negative, it's one of the reasons why when we conclude that review, there is a significant chance [Italy's] rating will fall," Riley said.
comincio a pensare che i Maya non erano cosi fuori con la loro predizione in merito al 2012
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