European Union uber-bureaucrat Michel Barnier took a swipe at Standard & Poor's for its downgrades of euro-zone sovereign debt. "These rating agencies should have given their alerts five, 10 years ago; not now," he told reporters during a trip to Hong Kong. Worse still, the rating agencies are ignoring the "giant steps" governments are making to sort themselves out. He's right, of course. But he's also wrong. There were people, economists mostly, warning about the fundamental structural problems of the euro even before the single currency was launched. But those voices were lost amid the market euphoria where ... (full story)