Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Greece Rating Cut, And The First Domino Is Tipping

S&P just cut Greece's sovereign debt rating to triple-c, and that is not at all the kind of Triple Crown race you'd want to win.  At least the Greeks beat the other PIIGS to the bottom, so they should get a prize of some sort (maybe a Grecian urn with the ashes of their country's economy stored inside). 

This shouldn't be funny.  There's nothing funny about the coming Greek default and the chaos it will cause when it pulls down European banks that hold Greek debt.  There may be something funny about Greek chaos reducing oil prices just as certain OPEC members are preparing to raise production.  Any prop traders who recently bought CDS swaps on Greek debt or went long oil futures are going to get burned badly in short order.

The first domino in the chained collapse of European equity markets and the euro itself is about to tip over.