Wall Street Journal (December 6)
“2024 is the year the global spillover implications of China’s slowdown will sink in. Advanced economies will downgrade the importance of market access in China, and Global South nations will be forced to find other engines of development.” This will lead to “a new phase of geopolitical conditions, with the anchor assumption of a rising China and declining U.S. being retired. The implications of this will be far reaching and challenging to forecast.”
Tags: 2024, Advanced economies, Assumption, Challenging, China, Downgrade, Far-reaching, Geopolitical conditions, Global South, Global spillover, Implications, Market access, Slowdown, U.S.
Insider (August 2)
“Fitch shocked the markets when it cut the US government’s credit score Tuesday at a time when the economy appears to be in a stable state.” The downgrade from AAA to AA+ has been widely criticized, “from top Biden administration officials to Wall Street,” with “market thinkers” labelling it “bizarre,” “puzzling,” “unwarranted,” “strange” “inept” and “ridiculous.”
Tags: AA+, AAA, Bizarre, Credit score, Criticized, Downgrade, Economy, Fitch, Inept, Markets, Puzzling, Shocked, Stable, Strange, U.S. Government, Unwarranted, Wall Street
Reuters (July 6)
The spectator ban on the opening ceremony is yet “another downgrade” for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, leaving its “pomp and public spectacle overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic. Once promoted as an extravaganza to showcase Japan to the world, the Games appear in danger of taking place largely out of public view in a country closed to foreign tourists due to the pandemic.”
Tags: Ban, Closed, Coronavirus, Downgrade, Extravaganza, Foreign, Japan, Olympics, Opening ceremony, Overshadowed, Pandemic, Showcase, Spectacle, Spectator, Tokyo 2020
Investment Week (March 12)
“BBB corporate bonds, the lowest investment grade rating band in which a company’s debt rating can reside, have now grown to make up more than half of the entire global investment grade (IG) market.” When the next downturn strikes,”there could be a cascade of ‘fallen angels’, companies that are downgraded from IG to high yield (HY), swamping the smaller HY market and causing problems for investors as liquidity dries up and imperfect market clearing mechanisms struggle to cope.”
Tags: BBB, Bonds, Debt, Downgrade, Downturn, Fallen angels, High yield, Investment grade, Liquidity, Market clearing, Strikes
Bloomberg (September 16)
Standard & Poors became the latest credit-rating company to downgrade Japan, following earlier moves by Moody’s and Fitch. “Could the Japan downgrade presage a stampede for the exits by international investors? Unlikely.” Most JGB investors are domestic “and probably won’t be concerned about the verdict of U.S. financial services companies, especially ones with the questionable reputations of the credit raters.” Japanese investors will continue to “view Japanese bonds as the ultimate safe zone.”
Tags: Credit rating, Downgrade, Fitch, Investors, Japan, JGBs, Moody's, Reputations Bonds, Safe, Standard & Poors, U.S.
South China Morning Post (December 1)
Moody’s downgraded Japan’s credit rating by one notch from Aa3 for to A1. “Despite the rating cut, Moody’s noted that Japan was not in a disastrous situation.” The Post explains that “Japan, which once led the world in innovation, is facing stiff competition from emerging nations including China, while a falling number of working-age people is shrinking its tax base even as soaring ranks of seniors strain the public purse.”
Tags: China, Competition, Credit rating, Downgrade, Emerging nations, Innovation, Japan, Moody's, Seniors, Tax base
Wall Street Journal (June 21)
In a move that “could add to the unease plaguing global markets,” Moody’s “downgraded more than a dozen global banks, including the five largest U.S. banks with global trading arms, to reflect declining profitability in an industry that is being rocked by soft economic growth, tougher regulations and nervous investors.”
The Economist (August 13)
The Economist believes “Substandard & Poor” provides a useful wake up call for the U.S. S&P’s past is “flawed,” especially by the liberally dispensed ratings that led to the sub-prime crisis. Still, “the basic fact is that credit ratings are useful for investors: if the likes of S&P did not exist, the market would invent them.” Previously unthinkable, the threat of default should not be a bargaining chip. “This is not how an AAA-rated country behaves. S&P did America a favour by pointing this out.”
Time (June 16, 2011)
A year of austerity has left many Greeks nearly broke or unemployed, “and the debt-ridden country no better off.” Greece now has the ignominy of holding the world’s lowest debt rating, following S&P’s most recent downgrade on June 13. Athen’s Syntagma Square (Constitution Square) has become the daily scene of protests and riots. The government appears near dead, with neither major party able to offer leadership. It’s difficult “to see any clear champion for the millions of Greeks struggling to get by.”
A year of austerity has left many Greeks nearly broke or unemployed, “and the debt-ridden country no better off.” Greece now has the ignominy of holding the world’s lowest debt rating, following S&P’s most recent downgrade on June 13. Athen’s Syntagma Square (Constitution Square) has become the daily scene of protests and riots. The government appears near dead, with neither major party able to offer leadership. It’s difficult “to see any clear champion for the millions of Greeks struggling to get by.”
Tags: Debt, Downgrade, Government, Greece, S&P, Unemployment
