The negative outlook of a potential downgrade of France, which was announced on Monday by Moody"s, seems to be something which the Hexagon has been heading towards, despite any warnings from foreign experts and despite the strong promises of its authorities that its top rating (AAA) would never be brought into questioned.

At the end of May, "Le Figaro" spread the rumor that "France has been working for a few days on a plan that would allow the government to acquire stakes in the country"s financial institutions, if necessary [ed. note: in other words, to nationalize them]", adding that two or three banks were concerned.

"Juste au cas ou" - an expression which gave many people cold shivers ("only if necessary").

In the beginning of July, there were rumors that "La Banque Postale" (the bank owned 100% by the French Post Office, which failed its planned privatization this year) capped, starting at 50%, the weekly amounts which card owners were allowed to withdraw from ATMs - a worrying sign of lack of cash, despite the bank"s high rating (of course, the state"s backing played a major part in its rating).

A little bit later (same month, July 21st), Centrum für Europäische Politik (CEP) placed France in the third group of CEP Solvency Index, on the 11th position, out of the 17 Eurozone member states, immediately below (!) Ireland. The only countries placed below France in that chart were, as follows: 12) Spain; 13) Italy; 14) Malta; 15) Cyprus; 16) Portugal; 17) Greece.

The significance of this position in the chart, bestowed by the authors of the study, comes from the fact that "the country not only spends 100% of its GDP, but also a part of its net borrowed amounts, which threatens its solvency".

In the coming month, in the first decade of August, it as revealed that the French economy - the second largest in Europe, after that of Ge