So Moody's downgraded Greece again this morning. They're now down to Ca, which is Moody's lowest rating, one notch above default. Of course, for all intents and purposes, Greece is in default already- bondholders are going to have to take haircuts sooner or later- but I think this shows the ratings agencies aren't impressed with the latest "rescue" plan. Of course, the ratings agencies' opinions aren't necessarily useful. Especially, as Mike Konczal pointed out in the link I posted yesterday, when it comes to rating sovereign debt. But they tend to be useful as gauges of conventional wisdom. And conventional wisdom says that Greece is screwed.
I think saying Greece isn't in default right now is just semantics-- right now participation in the latest rescue plan is, as I mentioned earlier, voluntary. So really, the only thing that keeps Greece technically out of default is the fact that bondholders don't HAVE to restructure their debt. But sooner or later, pretty much everyone agrees, they will have to. So we might as well call a spade a spade...
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