Apparently the Euro crisis is all the
ratings agencies' fault:
European politicians accused credit rating agencies on Wednesday of anti-European bias after Moody's downgrade of Portugal's debt to "junk" cast new doubt on EU efforts to rescue distressed euro zone states without debt restructuring.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the decision to cut Lisbon's rating by four notches so soon after it became the third country to receive an EU/IMF bailout was fuelling speculation in financial markets.
Greece is bust,
Portugal will need a second bailout (it's only just received the first one) and
Ireland is likely to need a second bailout also but no, apparently these ratings agencies are acting all a bit strange and with 'anti-European conspiracy' intentions:
"It seems strange that there is not a single rating agency coming from Europe. It shows there may be some bias in the markets when it comes to the evaluation of the specific issues of Europe," Barroso told reporters in the European Parliament.
Clearly the EU wants its own ratings agency so that it could try to circumnavigate the markets
like it does with its own treaties - then everything in the EU garden would be rosy.
