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Ahead Of Varoufakis' Meeting With Famous Sovereign Bankruptcy Lawyer S&P Downgrades Greece To CCC+

Tyler Durden's picture




 

To think it was just recently in September of last year when the S&P, seemingly unaware of the tragic reality facing Greece in just a few months (by reality we meen democratic elections which overthrew the previous regime which was merely a group of Troika picked technocrats), upgraded Greece to B and said "The upgrade reflects our view that risks to fiscal consolidation in Greece have abated."

Well, the risks have unabated, and two months after S&P flip-flopped and downgraded Greece back to B- on February 6, moments ago it downgraded it again, this time to triple hooks, aka the dreaded CCC+.

S&P said that without deep economic reform or further relief, S&P expects Greece’s debt, other financial commitments to be unsustainable. S&P views that Greece increasingly depends on favorable business, financial, and economic conditions to meet its financial commitments.

The rater adds that "conditions have worsened due to the uncertainty stemming from the prolonged negotiations between the Greek govt and its official creditors" and that economic prospects could deteriorate further unless talks between Greece and its creditors conclude soon."

In short: Greece is about to default and/or exit the Eurozone so this time at least S&P is prepared.

Ironically this comes a day before Varoufakis is set to meet with Obama. It will be followed by meetings with European Central Bank head Mario Draghi on Friday, Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew, Italy’s finance minister Pier Carlo Padoan and IMF officials.

But, as City AM reports, the biggest news is that the Greek Finance Minister "will on Friday meet with infamous sovereign debt lawyer Lee Buchheit, who has helped numerous countries restructure their debt. Buchheit is a partner at top US law firm Cleary Gottlieb."

It comes just a week before a vital meeting of Eurozone finance ministers on 24 April which could be the last chance Greece has of gaining extra funds before hefty repayments are due to its creditors in May.

As a reminder, "Lee Buchheit, a leading sovereign-debt attorney and the man who managed the eventual Greek debt restructuring in 2012, was harshly critical of the authorities’ failure to face up to reality. As he put it, “I find it hard to imagine they will now man up to the proposition that they delayed – at appalling cost to Greece, its creditors, and its official-sector sponsors – an essential debt restructuring."

The endgame for Greece has arrived.

 

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Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:11 | 5994962 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

LOL!  Greece doesn't give a fuck what the S&P thinks, hilarious.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:16 | 5994992 Wolferl
Wolferl's picture

Throw those pathetic Greek losers out of Europe already. It´s just a worthless third world country.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:20 | 5995017 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

Much like Detroit, however, unlike Detroit, the Russians would like a NAVY port in Greece...   ...so, there's some value in that...

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:31 | 5995072 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

At this point, what difference does it make? And other Hillaryisms as needed.....

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 15:19 | 5995951 nuubee
nuubee's picture

Is it just me, or does Varoufakis look exactly like Voldemort in that icon picture?

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 19:28 | 5996900 philipat
philipat's picture

There's American ingenuity for you. A US Company started the mess (Goldman) and now a US Company is ending it.

USA!, USA!, USA!........

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:33 | 5995086 MrPalladium
MrPalladium's picture

Hey!

A Russian naval port in Detroit would be even better!!!

At least then Detroit residents would be safe from nuclear attack in the event of war :-)

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:45 | 5995151 indygo55
indygo55's picture

Im sure the Russians would love a NAVY port in Detroit. 

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:20 | 5995018 Haus-Targaryen
Haus-Targaryen's picture

So Greece defaults, the Germans step in to save the Greek banks (that'll be politically popular in Germany lemme tell ya) - Greece stays in the EUR, and its the same shitshow just a different day. 

Oh, what will the Spanish and Italian people think about Greece's free haircut?  

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 13:56 | 5995551 joak
joak's picture

What makes you believe Germany will save the banks ? The bail-in is now the resolution mode, don't forget it.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 15:55 | 5996098 eurogold
eurogold's picture

Germans are just waiting to jump in and buy the country for real cheap. Unless the Greeks cut some deal with Russia which they will sorely regret.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:17 | 5995004 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

I'm inclined to favor you comment from yesterday, that this circus will keep going on, and that this Greece regime will simply keep coming up with all sorts of creative ways to stay in the poker game.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:21 | 5995024 Hippocratic Oaf
Hippocratic Oaf's picture

Once you go triple-hooks, you never come back.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:21 | 5995026 Haus-Targaryen
Haus-Targaryen's picture

Greece in 2012? 

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:22 | 5995033 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

Yes, so long as the oil, gas, and public utilities are kept on, nothing changes. Same thing everywhere...  ..bread and circuses.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:32 | 5995082 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

Rumor and innuendo......

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:23 | 5995037 813kml
813kml's picture

The end is near, Greece has secured alternative financing.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 15:57 | 5996110 eurogold
eurogold's picture

Which they ( the Greeks) will soon regret.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:28 | 5995053 ZH Snob
ZH Snob's picture

the greeks really don't have to come up with anything.  their multi billion dollar bill to the ECB was met last week.  HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...

they don't have the euros to pay this off, nor would they do that ahead of fortifying their own banks.  I guarantee you that the ECB did some magical bookkeeping they can't afford to let any of the PIIGS be aware of.

If Greece fails, the euro fails, maybe even the long anticipated black swan of worldwide banking.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:14 | 5994983 youngman
youngman's picture

So Say you are this pricy lawyer...do you ask for cash up front...or do you just send them a bill every month and hope it gets paid with something?????

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:20 | 5995021 Big Corked Boots
Big Corked Boots's picture

Can you imagine what that shyster's billing rate is?

I bet he only takes gold.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:15 | 5994985 Tsar Pointless
Tsar Pointless's picture

I've always wanted to see (well, not really, but it's fun to type that) the S&P go to 2222. I might get the chance if/when Grexit finally takes place.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:15 | 5994987 Kristian
Kristian's picture

When can we expect a downgrade of US debt..? Oh wait.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:15 | 5994989 I woke up
I woke up's picture

S&P=political tool

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:17 | 5994996 williambanzai7
williambanzai7's picture

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:24 | 5995029 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

This pic says it all: Veryfukis is no king Leonidas.

And Greece is no Sparta.  Never was.  Hell, even during theit peak-empire days, they were led by a Macedonian (Alexander).

I'm betting accordingly.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:26 | 5995050 Wolferl
Wolferl's picture

I aways wondered why a Persian messenger looks like a sub-saharan African.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:35 | 5995093 back to basics
back to basics's picture

I have news for you, historically, Macedonians (not the after the fact, seeking to revise history in search for glory modern day Slavs) ARE GREEK. Always were.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:51 | 5995172 Wolferl
Wolferl's picture

I have news for you, historically, Macedonians are Macedonians. Not Greeks. Greece was conquered by the Macedonians. And this has nothing to do with Slavs at all.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 13:52 | 5995516 back to basics
back to basics's picture

Ignorance is bliss but not when you post it on a public forum.

Athenians were Greeks, the Spartans were Greeks, the Thebians were Greeks as were the Macedonians. They shared the same language, the same gods, and virtually the same customs. Alexander the Great was educated by Arististotle, in Greek, not in Macedonian as Mecedonian didn't exist.

 

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 16:39 | 5996276 Wolferl
Wolferl's picture

I speak some English. I even had some English teachers. But i´m not English at all. Think about that.

 

The Athenians called the Macedoinians "barbarians". Which means foreign, non Greek speaking people. And you think you know things better today than the Athianians 2500 years ago? Seems to me you´re just a braindead Greek nationalist.

 

 

 

 

 

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 16:47 | 5996296 back to basics
back to basics's picture

You are probably from New York, thinking yourself a New Yorker, not an American. Got it.

The Athenians thought everyone barabarian following the godlen age of Pericles, perhaps rightly so. I think those living in Philly's Badlands barbarians but that doesn't however make them any less Americans.

You need to study history more and spew bullshit less.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 17:09 | 5996372 nicxios
nicxios's picture

Wolferl is so fucking stupid but what's amazing is he is so stubbornly fucking stupid.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 22:35 | 5997360 Brazen Heist
Brazen Heist's picture

Stubborn.....probably German.

Germans are very stubborn people.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 14:01 | 5995582 Nobody For President
Nobody For President's picture

Christine looks great in leather, doesn't she?

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:17 | 5995002 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

Default, don't restructure.

Cut that ball-and-chain off the ankle of Greece.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:18 | 5995007 keremetski
keremetski's picture

Vora-fakis, greece-fakis, ecb-fakis, merkel-fakis, whatever-fakis. I DONT CARE.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:20 | 5995016 surf0766
surf0766's picture

Wow a C. Maybe 10 years after they defaul they will be at D level.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:25 | 5995043 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

Bond rating directly related to how many banks and central banks have exposure.

Soon as the banks back out and the pension funds buy-in the coast is clear to go below A.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:21 | 5995027 Weaponized Innocense
Weaponized Innocense's picture

Awe how sweet! Nothing like bad good news! BTFD

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:27 | 5995056 richiebaby
richiebaby's picture

Splitting hairs. Junk is junk

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:28 | 5995062 youngman
youngman's picture

so when they default...they will immediatly issue new debt in Dracmas....who is going to buy it....and they will

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:28 | 5995064 _ConanTheLibert...
_ConanTheLibertarian_'s picture

Greece almost bankrupt++

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:31 | 5995075 yogibear
yogibear's picture

Greece is bankrupt. Although denied for the last several years.

 

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 15:04 | 5995882 GreatUncle
GreatUncle's picture

and that's the political sick part.

 

Once you pass  bankruptcy you can rebuild and not until then.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:29 | 5995065 brucyy
brucyy's picture

Now this is fucking hilarious

private creditors are long gone. There is nothing even left to rate. Dear god.

Default . Print drachma. What the fuck is wrong with them ? they could have done it a thousant time by now and be free

bu i guess politicians - are just only politicians.  

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:30 | 5995070 yogibear
yogibear's picture

Eric Holder of the Just-Us department shook-down S&P after they threatened the US credit rating.

Holder's goons seized S&P records and punished them for rating sub-prime mortgages  as AAA.

Since Moodys and Fitch did the same thing with sub-prime but did not threaten the US credit rating they were untouched.

 

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:45 | 5995149 Weaponized Innocense
Weaponized Innocense's picture

How else are politicians going to be the common peeps hero and sue the ratings agencies for getting everything all wrong thusly cause all the mess the entire world faces as their future since the now isn't the new normal?

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:31 | 5995077 youngman
youngman's picture

Greece has to make payroll every week....are they....paying the pensions too....

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:39 | 5995118 Jugdish
Jugdish's picture

"Sovereign Debt Lawyer" Interesting concept. Any of you Harvvvad grads want to expound on that for a minute ? What the fuck is sovereign anymore ? What was sovereign ? Is it GREECE or Greece or Grease ? Is there a difference between GREECE and Greece ? Who owns the debt ? What court do they go to ? The kangaroo banana republic court of rothschild, pedophile royals, et.al ? Are we a one world order of elites and slaves ? Can I get my barcode in my asshole or will the farting and shitting disrupt it ? How many fucking idiots have any fucking clue what legal, diction, words, are ?

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:45 | 5995152 yogibear
yogibear's picture

It would be funny if Greece just started printing Euros and circulated them throughout Europe. Pay your people in Euros. Use the same press the EU uses.

Very cool if true.. I'd be printing trillions.

 BANK OF GREECE ‘PRINTING ITS OWN EUROS’ SAYS BELGIAN ECONOMIST

https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/bank-of-greece-printing-its-own-...

 

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:55 | 5995217 astoriajoe
astoriajoe's picture

meh to Standardized Puffery.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 12:57 | 5995229 libertysghost
libertysghost's picture

So it's possible the meeting with Russia went well...Greece defaults on the ECB and Russia agrees to give them some cash either in loans or as payment for some properties and access (or more likely, if a deal WAS struck, a combination of the two).  That idiotic Bloomberg article the day of the meeting on here claimed the west was worried that Russia would help Greece pay back the IMF and ECB for thier EU votes regarding Russian interests...LOLOLOL.  That's what the west was hoping for...

That Bloomberg quoted deal would have given the IMF and ECB a way to get their money (from Russia through Greece payments) AND it would have given the EU/NATO members like Germany and France a scapegoat for why they "aren't being more forceful against Russia" (Greek is in the way).  I doubt they thought Russia would go for their supposed "worst case scenario" (best case actually), but I can see why they tried that play.

Of course a mental midget knew that it made more sense for Greece to default first, letting the ECB squirm as it slowly unravels...forcing someone else to fund the billions of illegal (since there's a civil war going on) IMF "loans" to Ukraine (like they're getting paid back LOL), sticking the ECB with the crap Greek bonds they hold, and sending a message to all the other PIIGS that default an option and there are other players in the world now.  

Now we wait and see...was a deal struck or not? 

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 13:45 | 5995469 QQQBall
QQQBall's picture

haircut first via restructuring and then Russia works a deal where Grease pays off a large portion or all of the debt. Alll of a sudden, Grease is debt free.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 17:07 | 5996368 MiTasol
MiTasol's picture

Grease is the time, is the place, is the motion

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 13:00 | 5995247 Joebloinvestor
Joebloinvestor's picture

Well they kept all the pensioners from rioting for awhile.

 

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 13:05 | 5995263 saldulilem
saldulilem's picture

Oh the drachma!

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 13:15 | 5995305 Colonel Klink
Colonel Klink's picture

Lee C. Buchheit is a partner based in the Jew York office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.

Well at least they got the right representation to help with the problems caused by the tribal banking system, and let's not forget GOLDMAN Sacks (sic)!

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 14:04 | 5995601 ersatz007
ersatz007's picture

CCC+ - isn't that the latest programming language?  

at least it's not a D.  although in fairness, i was grounded if i got anything below a B-  

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 15:10 | 5995908 Kreditanstalt
Kreditanstalt's picture

REAL PEOPLE have already "downgraded" "ratings agencies" to DDD-.

They have zero credibility anyway.

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 15:52 | 5996084 eurogold
eurogold's picture

And this is news ?

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 18:02 | 5996579 Banananomics
Banananomics's picture

S&P = Silly & Poor

 

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