Also, you don't really get to choose your credit rating agencies.
The ones used rely largely on who has the most cred.
The only ones with any real cred are the American ones currently.
I mean honestly, if you were going to blame them for anything. It's for not downgrading Greece and Italy faster to spur debt controlling moves sooner... and that's only if you believe it matters.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/12/do-ratings-agencies-still-matter/
Note US bonds not being effected by downgrades.
I don't see how making the dominant ratings agencies dependent on the governments they're supposed to be downgrading helps. If they would of held off on downgraded Italy and Greece, all that would of happened is that the situation would of been even worse when it did explode and people would be even more slow moving to fix it.
The problem hasn't been France and Germany getting preferable treatment. It's that France and Germany let the periphery act spend like drunken sailors with flimsy paperwork and more or less vindicate those who stayed out of it.
