S&P Declares Greece in Default

[hectorlca]

Holy Sh*t.

I hope I'm not jumping the ball on this, but this seems to be one of those quantum kick-off points.

Cheers all, and happy revolution!

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gWr7e-cRrImNGzk5FZlavwG7chqw?docId=CNG.cb3e53438436770951f3276d1a26d343.241

[aranuk]

I didn't understand anything in that article. It was all gobbletygook international finance babble.

Stan

[Dennis Leahy]

I didn't understand anything in that article. It was all gobbletygook international finance babble.

Stan i thought sure you were going to say, "It's all Greek to me."

Dennis

[ThePythonicCow]

ZeroHedge posted this at the closing of the New York Stock Exchange, eight hours ago: t's Official: S&P Cuts Greece To (Selective) Default From CC (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/its-official-sp-cuts-greece-selective-default-cc)

Their summary:
Translation: Greece better have that PSI in the bag or else the "Selective" goes away and "Greece would face an imminent outright payment default." Our question for former Goldmanite and current ECB head Mario Dragi: does the ECB allow defaulted bonds to be pledged as collateral within the Euro System?

[ThePythonicCow]

My take is this. On Feb 23, 2012, Greece retroactively changed the terms of their bond debt, adding a clause that would make it easier for them to restructure their debt and short some of the bond holders who might object. That retroactive change was a defacto default. Greece was no longer honoring the original terms of their bond debt This is what S&P is now acknowledging by saying Greece is in defacto default.

If the restructuring, announced Feb 24, 2012, completes as planned on or about March 12, 2012, then Greece will be back up to a CCC rating. If the restructuring fails, then this current defacto default will become more substantive.

[Dennis Leahy]

Oh, and I do believe that finance can actually be transacted by and understood by the average 10 year old kid. "High-finance" requires a calculator, but is still just adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. No matter how unnecessarily complicated they purposely make it all sound with the "Finance-Speak" gobbledygook.


"We believe that the retroactive insertion of CACs will diminish bondholders' bargaining power in an upcoming debt exchange."What a huge steaming pile! It's all a game to pretend that there's magic and calculus and physics and divination in high-finance. It makes the thefts (such as the whole "derivative" scam) difficult to comprehend - but even more importantly for the thieves, it makes it easier for them to avoid the noose.

Dennis

[ktlight]

FYI:
"Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has downgraded Greece’s sovereign credit rating to 'selective default' in response to the country’s decision to involve the private sector in its comprehensive debt restructuring.


Greece’s move “constitutes the launch of what we consider to be a distressed debt restructuring,” the US ratings agency said on Monday.

Greece has become the first eurozone member in its 13-year history to be officially rated in default, down from its previous rating of ‘CC’.

However, S&P said that once the debt swap is concluded, it will likely raise Greece's sovereign credit rating to the 'CCC' category.

Greece has negotiated the biggest debt restructuring in history as it seeks to reduce national debt to 120 percent of gross domestic product by 2020, from 160 percent last year, and to meet the terms of a 130-billion-euro ($170 billion) international bailout.

The private sector involvement entails a “debt swap” which aims to slice 100 billion euros off more than 200 billion euros of privately held debt if all investors participate.

The Greek government said the move was expected and would not hurt the banking industry.

"This rating does not have any impact on the Greek banking system since any likely effect on liquidity has already been dealt with by the Bank of Greece," the Greek Finance Ministry said in a statement issued on Monday.

Greece has the highest debt burden in proportion to the size of its economy in the 17-nation eurozone. Despite austerity measures and the bailout funds, the country has been in recession since 2009."

source
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/229011.html

[ThePythonicCow]

FYI:
"Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has downgraded Greece’s sovereign credit rating to 'selective default' in response to the country’s decision to involve the private sector in its comprehensive debt restructuring.
I merged this thread in with an existing thread on this topic.