Sarkozy's New Challenge: Protecting France's Credit Rating

Given the fact that the European Union's recovery is riding on the full faith and credit of a select few of the strongest union members. Sarkozy ia facing yet another challenge as guardian of France’s credit rating. Particularly in light of fact that France is the primary guarantor for the bailout program.

Hope for an improved fiscal outlook for both Greece and Italy, allowed markets to exhale this month. This was fueled by the progress Greece made toward naming a new president, and the new bail-out plan. Many markets have already made back much of the losses over the past few months, but volatility continues to be a concern. Attention was temporarily transferred away from Greece, and the growing concern about Italy after S&P erroneously issued a warning that they may downgrade France’s rating. In an instant, the overly sensitive market reacted, resulting in higher bond yields for France’s debt, marking a 4 month high.

For the bailout to work, the euro-zone requires other triple -A nations to step up and increase their guarantees. The bailout fund is structured to hold a triple-A-rating, but this is based on the underlying strength of France’s credit rating. France is the second largest economy in the European Union, following German. However, as far as the resolution to the EU fiscal crisis, France is the blue-chip guarantor - representing the Union’s ability to navigate themselves out of the financial hole. Accordingly, a reduced rating France, will undoubtedly have an impact on the firepower of the fund.

Frances President, Sarkozy, has made it his mission to protect France’s credit rating. The Wall Street Journal reported that Sarkozy’s has made guarding their Triple-A credit rating a “battle ground for the coming presidential elections in the spring” Sarkozy unveiled, not one, but two austerity packages since late august in an effort to signal to investors that France can and will meet its deficit targets.

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K. Reilly
The Cohn-Reilly Report
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Corzine's Blind Ambition: The Collapse of MF Global

MF Global is essentially in ICU, and nothing short of a miracle will save the company as we know it. Who was at the wheel when the company crashed and burned last week? Corzine. Corzine, former governor of New Jersey, who was once the head of Goldman Sachs, went back to his roots on Wall Street to head MF Global. As CEO of MF Global, Corzine, built the company to $41 billion business. It sounds like another Wall Street dream, but this success story, quickly turned into a nightmare, for the company and for its CEO.

The announcement came Thursday, November 3rd, that Corzine is stepping down as CEO on the heels of an investigation of the company’s unraveling. Their troubles started when the European crisis began to impact the company’s bottom line, since MF Global was heavily invested in European bonds.

MF Global is the first big financial company to tank at the hands of the Euro -crisis. The company’s Partners pulled back with increased concerns about their Euro bond exposure, which descended into a severe cash deficiency. MF Global’s investment in Spain, Italy and Portugal bonds had amassed to $6 billion in debt. The firm’s stock declined 66% last week when the company reported its worst quarterly losses ever. Meanwhile,the transatlantic continent’s gloomy future is hanging in balance, and sure to bring MF Global to its knees. The swift sell-off of its stock precipitated the company filing for bankruptcy. To put this horror story in perspective according to bankruptcydata.com, the MF Global bankruptcy filing is the 8th-biggest financial institution in the US, placing them over Chrysler, (in 2009), but smaller than Lehman Brothers.

It is beginning to appear that Corzine set out to redefine MF Global's Business Model, and aggressively redirect the company’s focus and trading objectives in an effort to create his own Goldman Sachs. He wanted to build an international empire, only he failed to consider the global economic mayhem, and particularly the crisis unfolding across the Atlantic, where Corzine wanted to heavily invest. The financial discord in Europe was no secret, so what was he thinking? A cocktail of insatiable greed and ambition tends to have a blinding effect on the soul.

Behind the scenes, the Wall Street Journal reported that MF Global was seeking investors or buyers to alleviate the cash crunch. But alas, there were no takers and unfortunately no alternatives emerged before the regulators’ deadline. The company was subsequently delisted. This is a classic case of an overly eager, unethical CEO with his own agenda. The level of ambition and arrogance was so steep, it apparently impaired his ability to lead with the company's best interest at heart. Meanwhile, nearly a thousand people will be out of work in a couple of weeks, just in time for Thanksgiving. The bright side is that many of the employees will continue with their lives and eventually find stability, but Corzine is finished - both politically and professionally.

Given the anti-Wall St. sentiment, I was not surprised to learn that Corzine declined a $12 million severance pay. No matter how you choose to spin this fact, his decision to walk away from millions of dollars he was entitled to, speaks volumes.


K. Reilly
The Cohn-Reilly Report

PM Papandreou: Biting the Hand that Feeds Him

The world collectively let out a sign of relieve when the news broke that an agreement was reached to resolve the faltering Greece economy. The Eurozone Finance Ministers gathered in Brussels to discuss the Greek debt problem, fully aware that the political and economic impact reaches well beyond the Eurozone. The US market responded to the news closing in positive territory after two days of three digit losses. We were barely able to process the news when word began to circulate about the seemingly ungrateful Prime Minister , had decided to conduct a referendum vote for the bailout proposal, and – to add insult-to-injury, the PM George Papandreou was contemplating leaving the Euro zone.

Just days away from defaulting on its debt, at a 160% of its GDP, you can only imagine the what was going through Sarkozy and Merkel’s heads. As was said to be Greece preparing to conduct a vote on the bail-out resolution, the dynamic duo (Sarkozy and Merkel) reacted to the new, and administered intense pressure for PM George Papandreou to make a swift decision as to Greece’s fate with the EU. Political pressure from around the world forced George Papandreou abandon the idea of conducting a bailout vote.

As details concerning the highly anticipated bailout program began to emerge, analysts and economist wasted no time weighing in. To attempt an overly simplified description, In order to dig Greece of its financial hole, the member Banks will also have to take on some of the losses, along with bond holders, who will be contacted as to how deep the losses will be. I will research the detail of the bailout plan what is said to aid Greece to reduce its growth-to-debt ratio from 140% to 120% by 2010.

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K. Reilly
The Cohn-Reilly Report