Even the US lost its AAA standing.

The subprime induced storm ended that fair weather complacency.

The current crisis originated in the subprime mortgage market.ampnbsp

Among the major countries, however, only France and Germany have an AAA rating.

Poor s lowered its rating on long term US debt from AAA to AA .

The country s sovereign rating is AA , not AAA, as it was 16 years ago.

This, of course, is just the story of subprime mortgages in another guise.

They thought that financial innovations could somehow turn bad mortgages into good securities, meriting AAA ratings.

According to Standard and Poor s, for example, The rating on EFSF reflects our view that guarantees by AAA rated sovereigns and freely available liquidity reserves invested in AAA securities will, between them, cover all of EFSF s liabilities.

A year ago, however, with the subprime mortgage meltdown of August 2007, I became certain.

Finally, to finance the plan, the EU could use its AAA borrowing capacity to issue long term bonds.

The debt has more recently been reduced with the State Government once again receiving a AAA Credit Rating.

The investment division of the bank had gambled on subprime securities and was forced to write off billions.

To get more people to borrow more money, credit standards were lowered, fueling growth in so called subprime mortgages.

Hungry for growth, the bank itself and a hedge fund founded by the bank invested in US subprime securities.

The recovery was ultimately fueled by so called subprime mortgages home purchase loans extended to borrowers with lower credit ratings.

After the subprime crisis erupted, mortgage and consumer debt was paid down by households either with their savings or by default.

One governor opined that the Fed should regard it as a good thing that markets were starting to worry about subprime mortgages.

Few people foresaw the subprime crisis of 2008, the risk of default in the eurozone, or the current turbulence in financial markets worldwide.

Coming so shortly on the heels of the subprime crisis, the debate over the debt ceiling and the budget deficit is the last straw.

The IMF s Internal Evaluation Office is more directly scathing in its assessment of the Fund s obliviousness to the US subprime crisis as it emerged.

How can a bond guaranteed in large part by countries such as Italy and Spain (likely candidates for a fiscal crisis) provide AAA status to Irish bonds?

The AU must secure an AAA bond rating in order to tap international capital markets on the most favorable terms, which includes issuing bonds on African exchanges.

As shockwaves from America s subprime disaster continue to reverberate, there is growing doubt about Europe s ability to handle a financial crisis on a major scale.

So no one was struggling more than they had been in the run up to the subprime madness, which came in the early 2000 s.

So no one was struggling more than they had been in the run up to the subprime madness, which came in the early 2000 s.

The EFSF buys the bonds of the countries which find it difficult to finance themselves in the marketplace (for example, Ireland) and issues bonds that are AAA rated.

August 2 came and went, with no default, but, three days later, a Friday, Standard Poor s lowered its rating on long term US debt from AAA to AA .

Millions of American homes that were purchased with subprime mortgages have been foreclosed in recent years, forcing their owners, unable to service their debt, to leave.

While financial institutions tried to mitigate risks by bundling subprime mortgages, Fukushima s cooling system was able to cope with either a blackout and an earthquake or a tsunami.

According to this group, misguided government policies, aimed at increasing homeownership among relatively poor people, pushed too many into taking out subprime mortgages that they could not afford.

The Germans want the ECB to focus only on large systemic banks, and leave smaller savings banks (like those that invested heavily in subprime mortgages) to national authorities.

It is enough to remember that in 2008 there were only 12 public companies in the world with AAA credit ratings, but more than 60,000 mostly American triple A structured financial products.

The impetus for a big subprime market came from within the private sector innovation by giant mortgage lenders like Countrywide, Ameriquest, and many others, backed by the big investment banks.

The medium term fiscal outlook continues to deteriorate while, in the short term, politicians play with the country s valuable AAA credit rating by arguing like schoolchildren over how to extend the debt ceiling.

It can raise these funds by issuing long term bonds using its largely untapped AAA borrowing capacity, which will have the added benefit of providing a justified fiscal stimulus to the European economy.

In August 2007, the decision by BNP Paribas to close two of its hedge funds exposed to the subprime sector precipitated a liquidity crisis for all European banks during that summer.

Add to that the American financial sector s untenable subprime and securitization activities, and it is not surprising that the next two years brought the global financial system to the brink of outright collapse.

By late 2007, for example, the Fed and the US Treasury had most likely already seen at least one report arguing that only massive intervention to support subprime loans could forestall a catastrophe.

But, while Fannie and Freddie jumped into dubious mortgages (particularly those known as Alt A) and did some work with subprime lenders, this was relatively small stuff and late in the cycle (e.g., 2004 2005).

If the solvency of Austria had not fallen by a single notch,from AAA to AA , we would have to pay three thousand million Euros of interest more every year, argued the vice chancellor and Christian democratic foreign minister, Michael Spindelegger.

To get more people to borrow more money, credit standards were lowered, fueling growth in so called subprime mortgages. Moreover, new products were invented, which lowered upfront payments, making it easier for individuals to take bigger mortgages.

What started with subprime mortgages spread to all collateralized debt obligations, endangered municipal and mortgage insurance and reinsurance companies and threatened to unravel the multi trillion dollar credit default swap market. Investment banks commitments to leveraged buyouts became liabilities.

It was in fact Anglo Saxon investment banking that changed UBS, brought in its first big profits and then the debacle. No other European financial institution has lost as much money in the subprime jungle as the major Swiss bank.

It is enough to remember that in 2008 there were only 12 public companies in the world with AAA credit ratings, but more than 60,000 mostly American triple A structured financial products. The US, the world s banker, had mutated into the world s hedge fund.