Greek Prime Minister Papandreou: Ratings Agencies Trying To Run Our Lives

ATHENS, Greece — Greece's prime minister has lashed out at credit ratings agencies, as borrowing rates in the crisis-hit country at record levels threaten plans to return to the bond markets next year.

George Papandreou in a written statement posted on a government website early Friday said the agencies, instead of elected governments, "are seeking to shape our destiny and determine the future of our children."

Major rating agencies have all relegated Greek bond status to below investment grade amid the continuing debt crisis. The move has angered the government which argues the fiscal benefits of its austerity program are being ignored.

Yields on 10-year Greek bonds rose above 15 percent, compared with the German benchmark rate of 3.27 percent, before the Easter long weekend.

Comments

[Carl Caroli]

03:40 PM on 04/25/2011

Rating agencies are in my mind, the reason the economy collapsed. They knowingly deceived millions by giving AAA ratings to crap. They should be dissolved.

[david5000]

09:14 AM on 04/25/2011

Rating agencies are fraud, they rated the toxic assets as investment grade, I do not bother listening to them, I think Greece should sue them for conspiring with GS and others to fleece the Greeks.

[nogimmicks]

02:40 AM on 04/25/2011

This recipe should work:
1. Default
2. Print your own Greek currency without any private bank
3. Collect taxes and never borrow from bankers

[structurequity]

08:28 PM on 04/24/2011

Ah Papandreou has hit the elephant in the room...global financial gain driven vehicles backed by their surrogates the trading agencies, they are out to make a buck on the dry teat of history, a nations ability to carry on... we have now replaced a country's, a people's, a citizenry, and its representatives with pure economic models of loss or profit... guess what the cost of having the rating agencies drop you down? Yes, you're correct, it is taking on the monolithic/hegemonic IMF/World Bank infrastructure that will make your people bleed form birth till death all to feed a machine based on sin.

[becky bradshaw]

10:45 AM on 04/24/2011

“Any institution which does not suppose the people good, and the magistrate corruptible, is evil.”

Maximilien Francois Robespierre

[cenobiarch]

10:59 PM on 04/23/2011

A nation that does not produce enough goods, and employ enough people, cannot keep a AAA rating.

[Rallis]

05:20 AM on 04/24/2011

then why does the U.S. still hold a AAA rating??

[tercio]

01:43 AM on 04/25/2011

The dollar is the world currency.

[Melinda Brunner]

10:32 AM on 04/23/2011

Hasn't business interest controlled gov'ts since the beginning of 'civilized' cultures?

[ThePeacemakers]

12:23 PM on 04/23/2011

No

[okiedemocrat]

10:08 AM on 04/23/2011

Not sure that rating agencies are Greece's biggest problem. What their failing economy revealed for all to see is that they have a government that supports way too many abled-bodied people, they are not efficient and citizens have a belief that government handouts are something to be proud of.

[gk 2000 2007]

08:41 AM on 04/23/2011

Greece is just another victim of American capitalism.

[poster1122]

03:20 AM on 04/23/2011

Ultimately, the ratings agencies' opinions only really matter because you want to borrow money to pay for stuff. If they bother you that much, one solution would be to pay for that stuff using money you have.

[nkurland]

02:42 AM on 04/23/2011

The wealthy own the bonds, who are clamoring over debt that results in the credit ratings agencies assessments. Its an attempt to force the state to sell off the commons for pennies on the dollar, nothing more.

[Peter007]

08:58 AM on 04/23/2011

The bonds drop in value when the ratings go down.

[Peanut Santiago]

11:41 PM on 04/22/2011

The credit rating agencies have too much power AND too many countries, including America and Greece, have no idea how to be fiscally responsible.

This Greek guy complaining is the pot calling the kettle black.

[CPA 4 Life]

11:16 PM on 04/22/2011

Greece will be forced to restructure its debt. The outrage should be that it took the ratings agencies this long to cut the ratings.

[larmarch5]

12:08 PM on 04/23/2011

Viva Iceland. Let the ratings agencies and financiers eat cake.

[ta8ersalid]

11:00 PM on 04/22/2011

The banking cartel wants to control the whole world population.

End of story.

[poster1122]

03:22 AM on 04/23/2011

If you want to pay for stuff with borrowed money, you're going to have to come up with an accommodation with the people who you're borrowing from.

[Peter007]

09:01 AM on 04/23/2011

There is no banking cartel. A cartel is an organization unified and working together. There are thousands of banks, they are not unified and they don't work together nor do any of them control a major market segment.
That's the reason, you never heard of any anti-trust charges nor any monopoly charges against any banks when it was fashionable to denigrate banks.

[Organic-Guy]

10:49 PM on 04/22/2011

The guy is right, although, Greece has little standing in this argument since they did mismanage the place for a long time.
Credit rating agencies are one of the thing holding everything back now. Many of these agencies were involved in the economic games that brought us all to this mess we're in and now they are holding companies and people hostage as if they were the villains. Maybe if they hadn't given triple a ratings to all the junk bonds, credit default swaps and back door deals from AIG and Bank of America et al things would be different right now. They are the ones who should be downgraded. I'm sick of these self appointed gods controlling everyone and treating them like criminals and letting the real crooks get off scott free.