HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

Human Wrongs Watch

By Nick Beams, 18 May, (WSWS*) — Leaders of the G8 major economies meet over the next two days with the threat of a global financial crisis hanging over their heads as the turmoil in the eurozone worsens.

**Eurozone. Author Glentamara. Source Europe_countries.svg 

Every day brings the bankruptcy of Greece and its exclusion from the eurozone a step closer, with incalculable consequences for the European and global financial system as fears grow over the viability of the banking system in a number of countries.

It is a measure of the depth of the crisis that three and half years after the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers brought the world economy to the brink of disaster an entire country now faces bankruptcy. The global financial system again faces the prospect of collapse, despite the provision of trillions of dollars of bailouts and the supply of an ocean of cheap funds since 2008.

Global share markets fell sharply yesterday with the FTSE All-World equity index down a further 1 percent and predictions that stocks will fall further today [18 May].

Yesterday [17 May] the credit rating agency Moody’s lowered its ratings on 16 Spanish banks, with a three-notch downgrade for the three major Spanish lenders. The decision followed a move by the agency last week to downgrade the rating of 26 Italian banks.