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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- There's a good chance France and a few other euro area governments will have their credit ratings downgraded in the near future. That would mark another low point in Europe's long-running debt crisis, but it may not shock the markets. "The downgrades are likely to come sooner rather than later," said Ewen Cameron Watt, chief investment strategist for the BlackRock Investment Institute. "But we believe bond markets have largely factored them in for countries such as France, Italy and Spain." While the bond market may be prepared, the immediate response could be less sanguine in the...

Financial Panic Sweeps Europe As The Head Of The IMF Warns Of A “1930s Depression”December 17, 2011 Are we on the verge of another Great Depression? Christian Lagarde, the head of the IMF, said this week that if dramatic action is not taken immediately we could actually see conditions "reminiscent of the 1930s depression" and that no country on earth "will be immune to the crisis". Right now, financial panic is sweeping across Europe, but most Americans are not too concerned about it because they simply don't understand how important the EU is. The truth is that the EU has...