Osborne placed too much emphasis on credit ratings and should have focussed instead on borrowing costs. The credit rating agencies, for all their analysis and research, follow rather than determine m… (View Post)

Yes. Last rating for France was AAA with Negative Outlook in December 2012. Says all you need to know about Fitch. Standard & Poor is the ICM of credit rating agencies. Fitch is the TNS BMRB. Moo… (View Post)

Andy NP linked to a post by Luke Harding, The Guardian's correspondent in Moscow, on the rolling blog on Boston. These two paragraphs are particularly relevant if a link with 'official' Chechen terro… (View Post)

I tried, Neil, I really did. I explained I was both liberal and democratic. But Lembit got there first. I was told swagger was more appealing than left-right orientation. (View Post)

His tweets have been getting madder by the month, Carlotta. Time for weekly visits by Conor Burns methinks. (View Post)