By Costas Iordanidis

In the mid-20th century, global economic power was symbolized by the “Seven Sisters” -- a term coined to describe the seven oil companies which came to dominate more than 80 percent of the world’s oil deposits. Their violent intrusion into international politics inspired numerous studies, novels and films. That was until members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) began to gradually regain their strength. And in a display of force in 1973 following the Arab-Israeli War, they implemented an oil embargo that threw the West into recession.

These days, global economic power is symbolized by the three main credit rating agencies. The assessments by Standard & Poor’s, Fitch and Moody’s determine the rates at which states borrow money from the markets. The Seven Sisters traded in one specific thing: oil. Rating agencies, on the other hand, influence market behavior as their experts evaluate the state of nations’ economies. The difference is huge.

Frustrated national governments may protest, but they can hardly contain the impact of these ratings, which can be arbitrary or, simply, mistaken. With one exception: Germany appeared to take issue with S&P’s downgrade warning for most of the 17 states in the single-currency zone, including Germany.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is clearly using the crisis as a pretext to impose stricter fiscal discipline on the eurozone. In light of this, the two-day EU summit starting in Brussels Thursday is expected to confirm her position as Europe’s Iron Lady.

Back to Greece, most alarming for the country’s ruling elite is that an exit from the eurozone and a return to the drachma is no longer out of the question.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso did not rule out a Greek exit from the euro area, if the country fails to live up to its obligations. This means that eurozone economies have taken measures to protect themselves from a potential return by Greece to the drachma.

At the same time, Former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, a traditional ally of Greece, noted that “Greece could stay in the eurozone but it is very difficult to achieve economic recovery with a strong currency.” The 85-year-old warned against the “huge human, social and political costs” of accepting a 40 percent internal deflation while staying in the euro area.

The drama escalates, but some people seem preoccupied with prosaic affairs.