Playing the ratings agencies for suckers

An item from Reuters, this morning, linked here, caught my eye for this comment:

The FTSEurofirst 300 index edged higher on Monday after France said French banks had outlined an agreement to roll over holdings of maturing Greek bonds, while German bankers also voiced interest in this model. 

I previously blogged that the ECB, under  the arch-trickster Trichet, (one-time 'Saviour of Credit Lyonaise'?????), had been hinting at the Greek privatisation sequestration confiscation programme being potentially linkable to a so-called voluntary rollover of Greek Bonds held by the scumbag bankers.

You bet German Banks would like some secret quid pro quo for "voluntarily" renewing their huge exposure to Greece, (like Deutsche Telcom picking up further shares in the Greek telcom company at a two third discount over that they paid for a similar earlier tranch of shares,) but will the rating agencies allow themselves to be duped in such a blatant fashion?  If they do, with underwater homeowners on both sides of the Atlantic wondering when and what the hell their Governments will do for them, Western Capitalism itself is clearly at the edge of the precipice.

If the Greek Parliament votes for the new austerity package and gets the needed €12 Billion, that will soon be squandered and gone.  Politicians pretending they are acting in the "national" or "wider public interest" will not be believed in either Greece, nor soon after, anywhere else! The voters can see what is afoot, the legislatures by protecting the banks are guaranteeing their own pay cheques and pensions, nobody elses as a detailed reading of the huge cuts for the poorest sector of society, in the new Greek austerity package, makes immediately clear, eg by cutting the level at which tax begins to be payable in Greece from €12,000 to €8,000.

Surely anyone can recognise, that the amounts collectible by such a move will be negligible in any terms, let alone when set alongside the trillions already sent to the Banks!

If the package is passed the Greek crisis will deepen in a matter of days. If the package falls then the Greek Government must surely collapse and the long deferred crisis will surely be seen to have arrived!