Dear Consob
Just noticed the other day that you had asked S&P and Moody’s to appear for certain misdemeanours. S&P for announcing while the market was open that Italy risked being downgraded, before the plans to cut the budget deficits had been confirmed, and Moody’s for downgrading 16 Italian banks.
Now I don’t know how much you browse the web these days, but I’d like to bring this to your attention:
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/?p=610686
It says that, if you look at where the market is pricing Italian risk, Italy would be rated 8 notches lower than where it is presently. That’s somewhere around junk. As opposed to an official rating of Aa2.
How much do attention do you think the market really pays to the ratings agencies anymore? Unless they’re politicians, i.e. not using their own money. Though if the market’s already pricing Italy at junk, S&P saying it might downgrade a notch or two could actually help the spread to narrow.
You’re complaining about no-one having the forethought to bring any deckchairs onto the lifeboats for you to re-arrange.
ciao Andrew
