The casino nature of the global finance system is revealed yet again in spades when it is reported that “speculators” are gleefully gearing up to make a killing on the plunging Euro and the impact on stock exchanges. In other words, individuals, some of them heroes of the capitalist world, hedge funds and others, like jackals, are going to wage war on the financial and social well being not only of the the entire Euro Union but US, Britain and Australia.
Helping them make life miserable for millions of people and hinder trade are the wolves in sheep clothing, the ratings agencies which utterly failed to detect the global financial collapse when they gave banks and corporations-cooking the books with massive hidden investments and selling worthless paper- AAA ratings , thereby nearly bringing on a depression.
While the IMF and Euro bloc governments , especially France and Germany, were endeavouring to solve the serious Greek sovereign debt crisis, the ratings agencies did not help by giving Greece junk bond status . This contributed nothing to the international efforts being made to try and overcome the enormous problem with implications for other countries. It did, however, play into the hands of the speculators . So while honest open efforts were being made to salvage the Greek situation, the ratings agencies were, in effect, doing their best to undermine those steps and rattle the bourses.
The role, past performance, professionalism and scrutiny of ratings agencies is long overdue . They , as much as the the big, greedy dicks of Wall Street , have undermined the economic health and well - being of the world and mostly, so far, escaped scot free.
