Debt

But what is safe? Is it the AAA or AA rating provided by rating agencies such as S&P and Moody’s? Does “safe” equal goodwill bonds issued by sovereign countries such as France, Japan, the United Kingdom or the United States? Perhaps…

The current attractive yield of 7 to 8% in combination with solid company credit fundamentals continues to attract new investors into the asset class.

The American case during August 2011 and that of France in January shows that the loss of an AAA rating does not necessarily lead to a higher interest rate adjustment.

This is not electoral populism to only criticize rating agencies, rather than question their economic utility and try to ask questions about their actual skills, in other words their ability to analyze the creditworthiness of issuers they rate.

We do not believe or at least most of the implosion scenarios of the euro zone regardless of the terms. -Not because we would be trying to find one or several sustainable solutions to the crisis of sovereign debt, but because such a process would cost too much to everybody for different reasons