Despite the criticism that rating agencies have endured in the past three years – much of it justified – someone at Standard & Poor’s retains a sense of humour.

Having seen off a half-baked European Commission proposal for some ratings downgrades not to be published at “inappropriate moments”, S&P warned 15 eurozone members of possible downgrades only hours after Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel had unveiled a new Franco-German approach to the crisis. You don’t get much more inappropriate than that.

Europe’s politicians and bankers were displeased. “A wild exaggeration and also unfair,” complained Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg. “These observations arrive completely at odds with events,” said Christian Noyer, president of the Banque de France. “A very politically motivated action,” huffed Ewald Nowotny, the central bank governor of Austria.