Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Some European debt ratings



CMA Datavision reports on credit default swaps for sovereign debt and so its information, based on market rates, is not quite so compromised as that of some major rating agencies. The global rankings are for 67 countries. The eurozone includes 4 of the 6 best, and 3 of the 4 worst. It is not surprising that the euro garment cannot fit all sizes in this range and the problem was identified by some commentators over a decade ago when the Euro was introduced.

Note: Spain is the 21st worst - consider it deep orange!

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17 comments:

  1. dearieme12 July 2011 at 23:42

    Which cash? Singapore dollars?

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  2. Jim in San Marcos13 July 2011 at 05:32

    In the second pic, is Spain suppose to be blue? I thought they were in worse shape than Italy.

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  3. Sackerson13 July 2011 at 06:29

    DM: GOK. Norway? Switzerland? Papua New Guinea?

    Jim: Oops! That's what working when tired does; now corrected. Now much more neatly geographic, it seems. Thanks!

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  4. Greg13 July 2011 at 14:49

    Dont forget that the same people rating the debt of these countries gave AAA rating to all the mortgage backed securities in the mid 2000s. Nothing they say should be taken very seriously.

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  5. Akvavitix13 July 2011 at 14:53

    Sorry to be a nit picking sod but shouldn't Sweden be in grey in the second graphic since they are *NOT* members of the Euro?

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  6. Sackerson13 July 2011 at 16:15

    Hi, Greg - CMA is not a rating agency like thebothers, this is based on the market in credit default swaps so is likely to be more nearly true.

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  7. Sackerson13 July 2011 at 16:17

    Akvavitix, well spotted, sorry for the error, will correct when I have time.

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  8. Wolfie13 July 2011 at 18:09

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKpxPo-lInk&feature=player_embedded

    I don't agree with it all but it is an interesting watch. I lived in Greece in the late '80s, and Georgios Papandreou was already enlarging the state as fast as he could. They should blame him more.

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  9. Wolfie13 July 2011 at 18:11

    BTW : What exactly is the point to this post? The EZ can't last? Well yes I think everyone got that in 1999 and we are still waiting for the neoliberals to realise.

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  10. Sackerson13 July 2011 at 19:34

    Hi, Wolfie.

    1. I like maps.
    2. The grouping of currency strengths here is curiously geographical - North, Central and peripheral.
    3. You may well have seen all this coming, but the CDS ratings are so very stark in their divergence - it's so dramatic.

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  11. Jim in San Marcos14 July 2011 at 04:31

    Hi Sack

    Looks like you got hit by the "Crayon Police"---The "spell check police" nail me all the time.

    As a side note to Wolfe, it is very easy to just write. Pictures take a lot of work. You have to frame it, size it, color it and label it. If I'm rushed, I leave out the illustrations. A picture or two really adds some zip to any blog.

    Plus if one of the PIIGS goes under you can update the map with a color change.

    Keep up the good work

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  12. Wolfie14 July 2011 at 21:32

    I didn't mean to be rude, I just was wondering where you were trying to go with this.

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  13. Jim in San Marcos15 July 2011 at 04:59

    Hey Wolfie

    Your comment was OK, I do less pictures than Sack because it is a lot of work, I was just giving Rolf a pat on the back, I know he spent some time putting those two maps together. And he ended up doing more work than he bargained for.

    A lot of time we write things that can be interpreted differently when read rather than spoken. No harm meant.

    Take care

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  14. Sackerson15 July 2011 at 06:43

    Wolfie, it was just a bit of exploration, sometimes a visual approach shows something more clearly than e.g. the tables in CMA Datavision. Also striking that the riskiest currencies are not the twopenny-halfpenny banana republics.

    The picture would be further intriguing if we coloured in the currently non-Euro EU mmebers appropriately. Is it like the mediaeval wool trade, centre does best?

    Thanks for the link re odious debt, found myself silently cheering for Ecuador. Is this the shape of things to come?

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  15. Sackerson15 July 2011 at 06:45

    P.S. Does speaking a Germanic langusge improve your financial standing?

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  16. Jim in San Marcos16 July 2011 at 04:36

    Hi Sack

    You are close to Ireland, is their youth staying put or leaving the country? I certainly wouldn't want to stick around to pay the bills the government wracked up. Commons sense suggests that those expecting benefits would stay and everyone else would clear out. I haven't read any thing even suggesting it. Is there something else at play here, that I am overlooking?

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  17. Sackerson16 July 2011 at 06:16

    Apparently the young Irish are, indeed, leaving the country in the hope of better prospects elsewhere.

    ReplyDelete

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