The Christian Noyer Gibberish Thread...

[yoganmahew]

He’s cropped up before, but this one is an instant classic:
bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16207748

French banker says UK should be downgraded first

The chairman of the French central bank, Christian Noyer, has said ratings agencies should downgrade the UK before France because its economy is weaker.

[Gene_Gindling]

Ah yes, The old my crap stinks less than your crap defense is it?

[BoyRacer]

Quelle surprise they found a senior French politician guilty of corruption.

Chirac says no appeal against corruption verdict → news.xinhuanet.com/english/world … 309264.htm

[johnnyone234]

the attacks continue

Overnight, France’s Prime Minister Francois Fillon has also had a pop at the UK - clearly everyone in French officialdom got that memo.

Speaking in Sao Paolo, he said ratings agencies seemed to be ignoring the state of British government finances:

We are challenged on the European currency, first of all because we are too indebted. But we are not the only ones. Our British friends are even more indebted than we are and have a higher deficit, but the ratings agencies do not seem to notice this.

telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt … -live.html

[pollydolly]

Maybe this is what’s upsetting him:
thisislondon.co.uk/standard-business/article-24022281-british-banks-flee-as-french-ratings-downgrade-looms.do

France’s plight was underlined by new figures from the Bank of England which showed Britain’s banks slashing their exposure to French public debt by $29.3 billion (£18.9 billion) between July and September.

The exodus from France accounted for almost half the $62.4 billion British banks shaved from their financial exposure to the rest of the world in the third quarter, when Europe’s sovereign debt crisis entered a dangerous new phase.

[Enoch_Root]

The state of Britain’s finances as a result of its banking fiasco are known. The state of France’s finances and their possible exposure to its banking fiasco are unknown.

As our old friend Rumsfield said about known knowns and unknown knowns. The markets work (when they are working) on the basis of information, known as known knowns.

The unknown unknowns are now known as black swan events.

[yoganmahew]

@Enoch Root

The state of Britain’s finances as a result of its banking fiasco are known. The state of France’s finances and their possible exposure to its banking fiasco are unknown.

As our old friend Rumsfield said about known knowns and unknown knowns. The markets work (when they are working) on the basis of information, known as known knowns.

The unknown unknowns are now known as black swan events.

To that you can add that the BoE has shown great flexibility in its dealings with banks (after Northern Rock). It has operated as a fully functional lender of last resort.

The ECB are the problem with French banks as far as the ratings agencies are concerned (i.e. with the link between banks and state).