S&P cuts UK credit rating on Brexit fears

Whether this is case of punishment for exiting or actual concern remains to be seen, although the former is quite plausible. The S&P has in the past been used as an economic warfare tool by the American government to bend or break nations to its will.

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Standard & Poor’s on Monday downgraded the United Kingdom’s sovereign credit rating by two notches, from “AAA” to “AA,” citing last week’s referendum that approved a British exit from the European Union.

“In our opinion, this outcome is a seminal event, and will lead to a less predictable, stable, and effective policy framework in the U.K. We have reassessed our view of the U.K.’s institutional assessment and now no longer consider it a strength in our assessment of the rating,” the ratings agency said in a news release.

Moody’s Ponders Credit Downgrades for 120 Energy Companies

Oil prices received a jolt on January 21 and 22, as a cavalcade of bullish news conspired to push oil prices back into the $30s per barrel. The markets got excited at the possibility of more aggressive action from the European Central Bank on Thursday after comments from Mario Draghi, the bank’s president.Also, several voices weighed on oil prices, raising the questions about the unreasonable decline below $30 per barrel. The head of state-owned Saudi Aramco said that oil prices below $30 per barrel was “irrational,” and that he expected prices to rebound this year. Separately, Citigroup said that oil could be “the trade of the year,” because a price increase is nearly assured. After all, prices cannot go much lower, can they?

Spanish unemployment hits record 5.64 million

Believe that’s bad? America itself is not far off. In the United States we’re looking at 14.5% total unemployment. This also doesn’t account for “99%’ers” and various other factors after a revision of what statistics are taken into account.

The number of unemployed people reached 5,639,500 at the end of March, with the unemployment rate hitting 24.4%, the national statistics agency said.

The figures came hours after rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Spanish sovereign debt.

Full article: Spanish unemployment hits record 5.64 million (BBC News)