Greece blasts Moody over downgrade

Bailed-out Greece reacted furiously to Moody's decision to slash its credit ratings on Monday, only days before a crucial summit of eurozone leaders to discuss plans for a permanent debt rescue system."The rating downgrade announced by Moody's today is completely unjustified as it does not reflect an objective and balanced assessment of the conditions Greece is presently facing," the finance ministry said in a statement.The finance ministry also blasted the rating agencies as a whole.

Just the headline for now: MOODY’S DOWNGRADES UK’S GOVERNMENT BOND RATING TO Aa1 FROM AAA Someone must have clued Moody's on the fact that the UK is about to have its very own Goldman banker, which means consolidated debt/GDP will soon need four digits. In other news, every lawyer in the UK is now celebrating because come Monday Moody's will be sued to smithereens.

European Union moves to set up a permanent rescue mechanism to bolster the euro are unlikely to satisfy sceptical markets anticipating more trouble and bailouts to come, analysts warned Friday.At a summit Thursday, leaders of the 27-nation bloc agreed on a permanent emergency rescue fund from mid-2013 to replace a one-trillion-dollar joint EU-IMF facility set up after the Greek debt crisis hit the eurozone in May.

Cowards Win For NowWe will not get to see the precise wording of Prime Minister George Papandreou's referendum because enough cowards in the Greek parliament in conjunction with blackmail by Merkel and Sarkozy have put an end to Papandreou's regime.Thus, the on-off on-off Greek referendum is once again set to "off" this time permanently.Equity markets reacted positively to the referendum cancellation and also to the surprise rate cut by the ECB, but the euphoria will not last (except perhaps for gold).

In the wake of S&P debt downgrades, Merkel vows faster eurozone reforms. European leaders promised on Saturday to speed up plans to strengthen spending rules and get a permanent bailout fund up and running as soon as possible, a day after U.S. agency S&P cut the ratings of several euro zone countries' creditworthiness.

Hopes dimmed Wednesday that European leaders could come up with the answers to the eurozone debt crisis at a summit crucial for the global economy, despite China offering to ride to its rescue.European Union presidents and prime ministers gather from 1600 GMT for their second summit in days with markets and world leaders urging a watertight deal to ward off fears of global recession.But draft conclusions leaked ahead of the talks show no deal on a figure for recapitalisation needs of banks as diplomats warned further meetings may be necessary later in the week.

Research Recap submits: Moody’s Investors Service today downgraded Spain’s government bond ratings by one notch to Aa2 from Aa1. The outlook on the Aa2 ratings is negative. The main triggers for the downgrade are: (1) Moody’s expectation that the eventual cost of bank restructuring will exceed the government’s current assumptions, leading to a further increase in the public debt ratio.