France loses AAA rating

Toby Take a Bow · 13-01-2012 09:26PM

dj jarvis wrote: »

Germany surrendered twice after being knocked into the stone age by the WORLD after 4 and 5 years respectively

France surrendered after 8 weeks - to one army, a lot smaller than the french army
they had more tanks and at the start of the war the french tanks were much better than the german mark III and IV

that is why they are called surrender monkeys

I read that the French army - despite being larger and better equipped - were being led by a bunch of WWI generals who had no idea how war had changed in the meantime (thinking that it would be trench warfare) and that's how they were so heavily defeated in such a short space of time. The same applied to Britain (but they could take refuge on an island until other people won the war) and Russia (who were also thoroughly unprepared, but because it's so fcuking huge they - eventually - copped on and started to fight back the onslaught just in time).

sgb · 13-01-2012 09:26PM

This is some thing the ordinary person has no control over, so to answer the original question don't worry about

hmmm · 13-01-2012 09:28PM

DOW is down half of one percent. Yeah, let's all be worried.

Doc Ruby · 13-01-2012 09:33PM

Toby Take a Bow wrote: »

This often confuses me. France surrenders once in two world wars, while Germany surrenders twice, but France gets the surrender-monkeys tag. Very confusing.

Its always very amusing to hear people speaking Franco-German mocking the French or the Germans, especially if they come from that big French colony off our east coast.

13-01-2012 09:36PM

RonMexico wrote: »

No because they debt levels across the Eurozone & The UK are astronomical.

Plus the five hundred thousand million Euro that was "printed" just before Christmas will all be expected to be repaid by the banks that borrowed it, many of these banks being French!

The debts just continue to get bigger and bigger! The ECB have given up and will just now print to inflate the debts away, soon you'll be able to pay your mortgage with a few postage stamps.

JONJO THE MISER · 13-01-2012 09:45PM

Take that ye frogs. Now where did i put my champagne.

13-01-2012 09:51PM

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

Take that ye frogs. Now where did i put my champagne.

In an ice bucket in the first class lounge on the Titanic!

Unfortunately, we're all in the same boat! :eek:

AngryBollix · 13-01-2012 09:52PM

It was only a matter of time before the sh1t hit the fan in france (and shortly) the U.K.

If it gains a strong foothold here then we are in real trouble

Mike 1972 · 13-01-2012 09:59PM

Isint this the same (Bog)Standard and (P1$$)poor who gave AAA ratings to all those dodgy subprime lenders back in the day ?

Why are these rating agencies still in business ? Surely financial advice from the community of drunkards on Dublin bus is more credible than anythng these clowns come out with ?

Logical Fallacy · 13-01-2012 10:12PM

pablomakaveli wrote: »

I always find it worrying that groups like S & P and Moodys have such an influence on the markets especially if they could be motivated by their own gain.

Same here. It's almost like they have a vested interest in the Eurozone collapse they way they time these announcements to coincide with bits of good news that might filter out.

Run_to_da_hills · 13-01-2012 10:20PM

Time to kill this EUSSR.

KINGVictor · 13-01-2012 10:24PM

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

Same here. It's almost like they have a vested interest in the Eurozone collapse they way they time these announcements to coincide with bits of good news that might filter out.

I didnt hear that same level of cynicism when they downgraded USA's credit rating some months back.

ejmaztec · 13-01-2012 10:26PM

Deleted User wrote: »

In an ice bucket in the first class lounge on the Titanic!

Unfortunately, we're all in the same boat! :eek:

I've booked a place on the iceberg.

fran17 · 13-01-2012 10:29PM

about time sarkozy started looking after his own backyard before trying to tell others how to manage there's me thinks

Mike 1972 · 13-01-2012 10:36PM

Toby Take a Bow wrote: »

This often confuses me. France surrenders once in two world wars, while Germany surrenders twice, but France gets the surrender-monkeys tag.

Awarded by the folks who only showed up at half time (US) or didnt show up at all (Ireland) ?

ejmaztec · 13-01-2012 10:36PM

Sarkozy and Merkel have been pissing around for months, instead of getting down to solving the Eurozone problem. The downgrade is self-inflicted as a result of the fiddling and farting around that's been going on.

ejmaztec · 13-01-2012 10:40PM

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Awarded by the folks who only showed up at half time (US) or didnt show up at all (Ireland) ?

Someone once said that the Americans, conscious of the fact that they were late for the first two world wars, would make certain that they were on time for the third one.

oppenheimer1 · 13-01-2012 10:46PM

The thing is, the euro crisis starts to quieten down, bond yields start to fall. Then up pop the ratings agencies with a downgrade.

Is this now the third or fourth time this has happened?

Rating agencies are sowing the seeds of their own demise. The more they push governments, the more their resolve will be to destroy them.

KINGVictor · 13-01-2012 10:52PM

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

The thing is, the euro crisis starts to quieten down, bond yields start to fall. Then up pop the ratings agencies with a downgrade.

Is this now the third or fourth time this has happened?

Rating agencies are sowing the seeds of their own demise. The more they push governments, the more their resolve will be to destroy them.

Really? Or an opportunity to face reality and address pertinent issues:rolleyes:. Forget the emotional attachment- the Eurozone did not go beserk after S&P ( a US based rating agency btw) downgraded the USA a few months ago....

oppenheimer1 · 13-01-2012 10:56PM

KINGVictor wrote: »

Really? Or an opportunity to face reality and address pertinent issues:rolleyes:. Forget the emotional attachment- the Eurozone did not go beserk after S&P ( a US based rating agency btw) downgraded the USA a few months ago....

I do not think it should be the ratings agencies dictating the pace of the changes we are required to make.

The confidence would come back to people (and remember people are the markets) if they weren't constantly rocked by bad news as soon as things start to quieten down.

Yahew · 13-01-2012 11:00PM

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Awarded by the folks who only showed up at half time (US) or didnt show up at all (Ireland) ?

Ireland didnt invent , or award, the term Cheese Eating surrender monkeys ( what ever, despite other than anti-irishness made you think we could have invented it and popularised it?)

It was the Americans ( specifically The Simpsons, as an aside by caretaker Wille, and popularised by Jonah Goldberg in the US).

Ireland had nothing to do with it.

The UK has popularised the notion that France surrendered on it's own. In fact the Germans defeated both France and the British Continental Army at the same time.

Beef Eating To-Dunkirk fleeing surrender monkeys*

tashiusclay · 13-01-2012 11:15PM

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

I do not think it should be the ratings agencies dictating the pace of the changes we are required to make.

The confidence would come back to people (and remember people are the markets) if they weren't constantly rocked by bad news as soon as things start to quieten down.

Yes thats partially true, confidence might return for a while, but the core problem still remains, the massive and unsustainable debt that the eu(and most developed countries) is carrying.

Its impossible to call how this sovereign debt crisis will play out, as it is pretty muc uncharted territory, but it looks to me as if we are seeing the beginning of a global power shift from west to east.

44leto · 13-01-2012 11:20PM

Another nail few nails put into the Euro coffin.

I hate rating agencies, they come across as holier then though, when yet they played a primary and corrupt role in falsely rating collateralized debt and mortgage derivatives which still has the world economy on the brink.

They got away with murder. The old ones should have been ordered to close. How can anyone trust them.

Crazy Horse 6 · 13-01-2012 11:27PM

Revenge for Henry handball. Take that frogs.

alphabeat · 13-01-2012 11:28PM

HAH ,
fcuk YOU , France

KindOfIrish · 13-01-2012 11:39PM

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Isint this the same (Bog)Standard and (P1$l tho$)poor who gave AAA ratings to all those dodgy subprime lenders back in the day ?

Why are these rating agencies still in business ? Surely financial advice from the community of drunkards on Dublin bus is more credible than anythng these clowns come out with ?

US politicians need them to scare voters by pointing, how bad life is in socialist Europe;)

KINGVictor · 13-01-2012 11:41PM

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

I do not think it should be the ratings agencies dictating the pace of the changes we are required to make.

The confidence would come back to people (and remember people are the markets) if they weren't constantly rocked by bad news as soon as things start to quieten down.

Dictating? How are they doing that?

Confidence should come from the people- you say...how? The reality is that investors and the folks that buy bonds are not the "people". The bond buyers are making investments based on the available information based on risks and opportunity.

The credit rating agencies have been influential over the last century and have been instrumental in deciding the economic fate of a lot of countries- why cry foul because the victims now are closer to home?

dj jarvis · 13-01-2012 11:56PM

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Awarded by the folks who only showed up at half time (US) or didnt show up at all (Ireland) ?

do your research - learn your history , the Irish free state done Britain a big favor in reconnaissance , intelligence , air space - amongst a hundred other valid reasons - don't forget we were neutral on the side of the allies

church hill stated that if the Irish free state did not stay neutral it could have ended the UK's war effort by losing its ports and the land to a German landing force from France by the Germans

the irish worked hard to supply the UK with food and men - 10,000 Irish men died in the second world war - correct me if im wrong but per head of population did the free state not lose more fighting men than England ?

your vitriol is getting old

just because the " victors " tell the story does not mean its factually correct

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isNOQ3zQ2F0

drdeadlift · 13-01-2012 11:57PM

Are they down to a B rating now?

Logical Fallacy · 14-01-2012 12:30AM

KINGVictor wrote: »

I didnt hear that same level of cynicism when they downgraded USA's credit rating some months back.

I'm not sure i see the point of your post. Do you mean in general or me specifically?

France loses AAA rating

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