Wall Street Journal
The cascade of rating downgrades that hit France and eight other euro-zone nations last week casts fresh doubts over the monetary union’s ability to bail itself out of financial crisis and rescue its most vulnerable member, Greece.
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services on Friday said it had stripped triple-A ratings from France and Austria and downgraded seven others, including Spain, Italy and Portugal. It retained the triple-A rating on Europe’s No. 1 economy, Germany.
The downgrade to France, the bloc’s second-largest economy, will make it harder—and potentially more expensive—for the euro zone’s bailout fund to help troubled states…….
Political Arena 