S&P downgrades world's oldest bank to junk status
• AFPStandard & Poor's cut its credit rating for troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena -- the world's oldest surviving lender -- to speculative-grade status of BB+ from BBB-. The ratings agency said it was also placing the bank on negative outlo
The only possible conclusion that we can come to is that this bank was more or less an "honest" bank. The reason that they are having so much difficulty - and the S&P downgrade - is that no bank can survive as part of the world banking system and still retain any REAL honesty.