Rubénerd!

From the Australian @ABCNews:

Big four banks warned they may be downgraded by Fitch because of reliance on offshore funding

The Coalition and its sympathisers regularly take credit for the reforms instituted by Hawke and Keating, but what's really kept the coal-fired Australian juggernaut moving are mineral exports to booming markets, and a ready pool of cheap foreign credit. Banks could take money from depressed markets with low interest rates, then charge Australians local rates. Obviously, this disparity fuelled a gravy train like... a train powered by gravy. Mmm, gravy!

As for ratings agencies: well, I've voiced my opinion of them before, especially with regards to Ireland.

Remember my recent post about Ireland's economy, and how I rated as junk the ratings agencies themselves?

Unsurprisingly, Rob Delaney said it much better.

[Ratings agencies] maintained AAA ratings for companies run by abject criminals who knowingly, consciously, and systematically lied to US citizens and citizens of the world at large. Thus, they are culpable in the collapse of many banks (my own included) and their actions, among other things, drove thousands of families from their homes. As such, their opinion is worthless to me and it should be worthless to you.

Are you Alaskan and worried that your country's credit rating may spill over to you? Not to fear, according to the graphic above from CNN Money at 2:52 PM Eastern US time, you're still AAA! I'm still awaiting confirmation from Bloomberg and CNBC.

In other news, I love that Singapore is represented in "The AAA Club" with a single dark pixel. Very generous, considering its land area barely qualities it for a subpixel rendered on the edge of a glyph let alone an entire pixel. Must be all that land reclamation.

So let me get this straight, because honest taxpayers like Neal O'Carroll have been so generous in shouldering the burden imposed by the bankers that got them into this economic mess... the bankers are getting an investment.

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