The almighty credit agencies have turned their sights to the world’s largest banks, downgrading Bank of America and Goldman Sachs among others, but the appeal for calm came from the IMF’s chief, Christine Lagarde, after fellow French countrymen continued the battle of words against Great Britain. Following the calamitous events with David Cameron at the last EU summit, Christian Noyer, head of the Bank of France, announced that Britain not France, should receive a downgrade, “which has bigger deficits, more debt, higher inflation, less growth than us and where credit is shrinking,” he said.
The Financial Times reports that Lagarde was vocal about the need to pull together, to overcome the current crisis, or be prepared to fill into a 1930s-style depression of enormous magnitude, “It is not a crisis that will be resolved by one group of countries taking action. It is going to be hopefully resolved by all countries, all regions, all categories of countries actually taking action,” she said.
Meanwhile Britain’s PM, David Cameron, was doing just the opposite – keeping Britain out of the new EU treaty – and attempting to maintain autonomy in a very difficult situation. This move, has stirred the ire of fellow politicians in the UK and now France is out on the verbal warpath. Isolationism is a dangerous path to take, and a decision that many believe Cameron will have to reverse, very soon.