> You haven't my point about CDS rates.
> They totally contradict the rating, and they
> reflect real money that somebody is willing to put up.
But the BRICs pretty much *are* that real money, in a situation where the shadow banking system is toast and sovereign liquidity is king. CDS rates are just bets on where currencies are headed -- they can accurately register the plight of heavily neoliberalized, debt-swamped small economies like Ireland and Greece, or vulnerable countries of the semiperiphery. Still, they're not terribly relevant to self-financing heavyweights like the US, Japan, core Europe or the BRICs.
I could be wrong, but it looks like the neolibs are playing up CDS rates as a way of legitimating Euroausterity, much like the rhetoric of the bond vigilantes ushered in Clinton's turn to austerity back in 1993. Which is just nuts -- the EU really needs to stop screwing around and issue full-fledged E-bills to bail out its poorer members, just like the US issues T-bills to finance poorer US states. But apparently the Sarko-Merko-Berlo three-ring clown show has better things to do, like deporting Roma and bashing Turkish immigrants and blasting Afghani civilians to smithereens.
-- DRR