France stripped of another top rating

Moody's on Monday (19 November) became the second ratings agency to strip France of its top rating, citing continued economic woes and lack of competitiveness, a blow to President Francois Hollande who tried to fix the problem with higher taxes.

The downgrade of the French government's projected capacity to pay back its debt comes after Standard&Poor's in January - still during the presidency of Hollande's predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy - was the first of the three top rating agencies to s...