Oh, the weather outside if frightful but with the economy inside it's no more delightful

I love the snow – the deeper, the crisper, the more even, the better. In December 2010, Medway was stuck in a knot of storm weather that deposited more than a foot of snow in two days. It caused chaos, especially in the transport sector, where grit almost ran out, vehicles frequently flipped (so much so that Newsroom Southeast had their opening montage with an upside-down car in a drift – rather more pointed than the usual bland images stitched together) and Heathrow was virtually closed. It is claimed that it contributed to half a billion pounds being wiped off national GDP.
Given that last figure and the economic chill of that we are subjected now, I will forgo a meteorological one, to give us a chance of skimming outside of a recession. There again, the Eurozone could bring the whole world down, bad weather or no. The talk of a ‘financial compact’ to sort out the structural weaknesses, makes me think of make-up covering up a myriad of sins – Germany needs to give up some cherished ideals, such as not printing money as a way out of the crisis.
As the mascara streaks as the heat is turned up, the zits that need some Clearasil action are the rating agencies. Honestly, what are they for? They are home wreckers by being nation wreckers. Standard & Poor, not content with downgrading the USA in August causing financial turmoil, are now insistent on doing it again, warning gloomily against investing in any member of the Eurozone for as a whole they might soon be downgraded. They want to be ‘ahead of the curve’ as they, along with Fitch and Moody’s, were behind the curve in giving top-notch ratings to products that were, in reality, junk. Thus having played a key role in the credit crunch and Great Recession, S&P are now trying to prolong it in a clumsy attempt to protect their reputation. Trouble is, their reputation is already shot and their cack-handed subsequent self-serving measures risk becoming self-fulfilling. Any company that is of a size to invest in sovereign debt can do credit checks of their own. It’s time to legislate the ratings agencies out of existence – the US will be sympathetic and the Eurozone may see it as one of necessity.