Credit-rating agencies are a favoured scapegoat of many European politicians, incurring mounting wrath as they downgrade the debt of one sovereign after another. They stand accused of ignorance over European reforms or even of being part of an Anglo-American conspiracy to destroy the euro. Such opprobrium owes much to the fact that, although they are flawed arbiters, the rating agencies can speak uncomfortable truths. The decision by Standard & Poor's, one of the big three, to downgrade nine European governments on January 13th was an example, s&p punctured the optimism over recent bond auctions in Italy and Spain. It chastised governments for their inadequate response and their misguided obsession with austerity. And by drawing so many into the net, it made clear that the problem is not just individual countries, but the euro zone as a whole.
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