Greek Toast Anyone?

S&P wakes up and slashes Greece's credit rating, to junk -

Standard & Poor's said Tuesday it cut Greece's ratings to junk status. The ratings agency lowered the long-term sovereign credit rating on Greece to BB+ from BBB+. The outlook is negative. "The downgrade results from our updated assessment of the political, economic, and budgetary challenges that the Greek government faces in its efforts to put the public debt burden onto a sustained downward trajectory," said Marko Mrsnik, an S&P credit analyst, in a statement.

In addition, Portugal's got cut by two as well.

This seems to have resulted in a massive sell off in the markets: Greek stocks are down 7%, PMI is getting thrashed right now, other losers include Citigroup, Ford. The Shanghai Composite is down 2.1%, FTSE is down 2.6%, gold is surging, China is in the same boat everyone else is and trying to stimulate as well.

Long and short, no pun intended, every time the market moves in volume, it plunges, bad. This means that there is little more than duct tape and Ben Bernake's pleasant dreams propping up the stock market.

The Real Effect
Overall, the problem is, the Greeks don't want "help". But bankers don't exactly take no for an answer, especially when they can take control of your country doing it. Think Iceland.

I believe that this is similar to what happened in Jun - Sept of 2008, there will be tons of rumblings, some casualties, but the real plunge will happen later. The elite seem to want to patch things together to hold it up for just a bit longer.

In addition, a key indicator has been displayed for hints on the US bond meltdown. Namely, the politicians are blaming the "greedy" bankers for wrecking their rates by shorting them. Watch for this to continue to intensify as politicians realize their hides are on the line here.