Sorry if this has been diaried already, but I think it's important enough to post.
Europe has been desperately trying to pull together their financial situation, a problem that centers upon poor investor confidence. My understanding is (correct me if I'm wrong) that Italy and Spain would not been on the edge of collapse if investors had confidence enough to buy their bonds - the lack of investor confidence in their bonds is in and of itself leading to the collapse of said bonds. While that sounds suspiciously like a pyramid scheme to me, that's a subject for another diary. Into this precarious situation steps the S&P, last seen downgrading US debt for no decipherable reason:
Standard & Poor's blamed "deepening political, financial and monetary problems within the eurozone" on Monday night as it warned 15 of the 17 countries in the single currency that they faced a possible downgrade of their credit ratings.
The downgrade threat extends to Germany, France, and Luxemberg, who have all been financially solid in the current crisis. This leads to the obvious question:
What is the S&P trying to accomplish? I think its clear from their completely unjustified downgrade of the US debt that they are not 'looking out for investors'. I completely fail to see how anyone stands to gain from a Eurozone collapse, though.
I'll try and stay on top of comments, but I'm currently sitting 50 miles off the coast of Massachusetts, so internet may be spotty.