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May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Britain may lose its AAA credit rating for the first time as government finances deteriorate in the worst recession since World War II.
Standard & Poor’s lowered its outlook on Britain to “negative” from “stable” and said the nation faces a one in three chance of a ratings cut as debt approaches 100 percent of gross domestic product. The pound fell the most in four weeks against the dollar, the FTSE 100 Index slid as much as 2.8 percent and...
Britain would become the fifth western European Union nation to lose its rating because of the economic slump, following Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain. The U.K.’s debt load next year will be 66.9 percent of GDP, exceeding Canada’s 29.1 percent and Germany’s 58.1 percent, according to April 22 forecasts by the International Monetary Fund. The U.S. will be at 70.4 percent, and the 16-nation euro area at 69 percent, according to the IMF.
Who Would Dare Downgrade U.S. Debt?
In an open letter to Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch on Monday, Martin Weiss argues that the three rating agencies should downgrade U.S. long-term debt. He acknowledges the turmoil it would create, punishing Treasury bonds and causing interest rates to spike. In Weiss's view, however, leaving the AAA-rating untouched could ultimately prove far worse. It gives Congress a free pass to add to the public debt and encourages investors to buy Treasury notes and bonds, whose low yields, he believes, don’t compensate for the dangers.
"Worst of all," Weiss writes, "by continuing to reaffirm America's triple-A rating, you help create a false sense of security overall--the recipe for a possible meltdown in the market for U.S. sovereign debts."
It is my belief that the UK economy is not in a state that is significantly worse than its US counterpart. Both are about to reach 100% of GDP, yet there is no indication that the US credit rating is going to be downgraded in the short term.
Originally posted by woodwardjnr
Things really dont look good for us in the UK. It does worry me the effect of the cuts we are going to have to make. Still if we make the cuts now we have a risk of going back into recession, which according to the economist David Blanchflower, would send the UK's economy into a death spiral.
www.guardian.co.uk...
Originally posted by marg6043
reply to post by Mdv2
Then Spain got the same warning miraculously Spain said that they are doing just fine (after the saw what happen to Greece), now they are after UK, very soon the will go After Germany, because this last two nations are about to destroy the EU.
I tell you globalist are taking over, but darn if the nations been taking over will not go without some hell.
[edit on 20-5-2010 by marg6043]
Originally posted by Fang
reply to post by marg6043
The UK's position is very different.
Queen Elizabeth II, head of state of the United Kingdom and of 31 other states and territories, is the legal owner of about 6,600 million acres of land, one sixth of the earth’s non ocean surface. She is the only person on earth who owns whole countries, and who owns countries that are not her own domestic territory.
This land ownership is separate from her role as head of state and is different from other monarchies where no such claim is made – Norway, Belgium, Denmark etc. The value of her land holding. £17,600,000,000,000 (approx).
Originally posted by Fang
reply to post by Korg Trinity
The US Subprime Fiasco was Labours fault? You think they should have let Northern Rock, Lloyds, HBOS, RBS et all go to the wall?
I'm sure the Tories will cut the deficit as quickly as they can. Let's hope we all have jobs and homes to go to when they have finished.