The downgrade didn't prevent Spain's Amancio Ortega, founder of retail giant Inditex, from becoming Europe's richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

“We have no sense that European partners will follow this tactic of blackmail heard from some quarters and stop funding,” Alex Tsipras, leader of Greece's anti-bailout Syriza party told Bloomberg Television. Rather, Mr. Tsipras thinks that Greece can break the terms of the European rescue agreement signed by a previous Greek government without being forced to exit the eurozone.

"If the Greeks do not meet the commitments they have made, do not meet their financial commitments, do not repay loans, Slovakia will demand that Greece leaves the euro zone," Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico said at a news conference today.

Credit Agricole's Grexit contingency plans include walking away from Greek assets, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Germany beat the Netherlands 2-1 on goals by Mario Gomez.

Softballs: Jamie Dimon got in and out of Senate Banking Committee hearings without being pressed too hard on JPMorgan's recent trading losses, and Heidi Moore says it comes down to one chief reason: No amount of regulation can prevent banks from making stupid decisions.

Mr. Dimon's recent troubles may have created space for another Wall Street boss to claim the title of America's Least Hated Banker.

Emerging market: Large institutional investors and the Wall Street firms that bank them are talking about creating an electronic marketplace for corporate bonds, The Journal reports. BlackRock and Goldman Sachs are among firms that have begun building their own platforms.

Lawyer's suit: Former Dewey & Labouef partner Henry Bunsow is suing the law firm, which filed for bankruptcy on May 28, charging that the firm encouraged partners to make capital investments in the firm in what amounted to a pyramid scheme. "Defendants used partner capital investments as a form of revenue to enrich themselves and to hide the dire condition of the firm from the public,” read Mr. Bunsow's complaint.

Tear-jerker:Wily defense counsel Gary P. Naftalis drew tears from client Rajat Gupta, the former McKinsey & Co. founder accused of passing corporate secrets to Galleon Group's Raj Rajaratnam, during closing remarks of the insider-trading trial at the U.S. Southern District courthouse in downtown Manhattan. “Whatever you do here will mark whatever future he [Gupta] has left,” Mr. Naftalis said. “To believe the argument of the defense team, you’d have to believe Mr. Gupta is one of the unluckiest men in the world,” prosecutor Reed Brodsky told the jury.

Change of tide? François Hollande defeated Nicolas Sarkozy, as expected, in a runoff election, installing as French president a socialist party leader who has promised to revisit austerity plans negotiated between Mr. Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In Greece, voters shifted support away from political mainstays to extreme parties, placing the future of austerity in that country in question. The "bitter reality" of the European economic situation may preclude Mr. Hollande from straying too far from his predecessor's path.

In Greece, on the other hand, the election results increase chances that the country will exit the euro to 50-75 percent, according to two Citigroup economists, though they say that a broad break-up of the monetary union is unlikely.

Zero Hedge has your guide to Europe for Dummies.

Preferred customers: Some MF Global clients have recovered holdings from the failed broker, while others have yet to see a dollar, the Wall Street Journal reports. The difference: where the clients invested their money. Funds invested in the U.S. have been at repaid 72 percent, but regulatory quirks leave those with money invested overseas waiting to recover funds.

Seeking allies: Reuters digs into the state of affairs at Ally Financial, "one of the least scrutinized bailouts of the financial crisis," and hears that mortgage-lending unit ResCap may be placed in bankruptcy within the next week. Ally, meanwhile, has been the victim of competing interests internally and lax government oversight. With indications that General Motors and Chrysler are less likely to auto loans to Ally, the Treasury's 74 percent stake in the company could lose value.

Buffett bailouts: Warren Buffett said his investments in Goldman Sachs and General Electric were of little importance to Berkshire Hathaway when compared to longer-term stock holdings and company acquisitions. Buffett invested a combined $8 billion in the two companies in the depths of the financial crisis, but profits from those deals are just "peanuts," according to Bloomberg. “They’re not remotely as important as buying Coca-Cola stock,” Buffett said at Berkshire's annual meeting on Saturday. “The values in Berkshire that have been accumulated by some special security transaction are really just peanuts compared to buying businesses like Geico, or Iscar or BNSF.”

Public equity: The Washington Post gains access to the Carlyle Group dealmakers behind the 2005 takeover of a beleaguered auto parts company, and finds unsentimental capitalists wielding "a blunt instrument to reorder unproductive businesses and create vast wealth." Which is a mighty good thing, when it works.

Hiring rebound: New job openings in the City of London rose 9 percent in April from the month prior, as liquidity from the European Central Bank drove staffing in fixed income units, and lenders continued to take on compliance experts in adapting to new regulations. Openings are still down 27 percent from the year before, according to the Financial Times.

Bang the drum slowly: Management at embattled Dewey & LeBouef acknowledged in a Friday afternoon memo that the firm may close and employees may lose their jobs, Dealbook reports. They might have guessed something was up when the firm closed the mailroom and copy center.

[KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/GettyImages]

Bad gas: From 2004 to 2008, Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon ran a private hedge fund that traded the same commodities that Chesapeake produced, according to Reuters. The $200 million fund listed Chesapeake's Oklahoma City HQ as its mailing address, and employed an accountant who was also on staff at the natural gas powerhouse. Marketing the fund, we expect, was a breeze.

McClendon addressed media for the first time since he was stripped of his chairmanship, but wouldn't discuss reported conflicts of interest: "Your mother told you not to believe everything you read or hear for good reason,” he said.

Phoenix falls: Merger discussions between New York law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf and SNR Denton fell through yesterday, raising the chances that Dewey will collapse under the weight of its debt burden and partner exodus. Chances for a deal, which SNR Denton brass nicknamed "A Phoenix Rises from the Ashes," diminished after Dewey announced that the Manhattan's district attorney had opened a criminal investigation into the firm, according to the Journal.

Priced to sell: Carlyle Group closed its IPO at $22 a share, valuing the company at $6.7 billion, after the private equity firm lowered its asking price from the $23 to $25 range it had sought. The lower price reflects skittishness after previous private equity IPOs lost value, but founders Bill Conway, Daniel D'Aniello and David Rubenstein will make out fine: Each retains about 15 percent ownership in the company.

The D.C.-based firm will trade on Nasdaq under the CG ticker.

Class warfare: At a meeting with Obama campaign manager Jim Messina last fall, a wealthy donor asked whether there was anything the president could do to stop attacks on the rich, Nicholas Confessore reports in the forthcoming Times Sunday Magazine:

The president had won plaudits for his speech on race during the last campaign, the guest noted. It was a soaring address that acknowledged white resentment and urged national unity. What if Obama gave a similarly healing speech about class and inequality? What if he urged an end to attacks on the rich?

It's a brilliant anecdote, and a not not alarming bit of self-pity and conflated identification. But there's something about the nakedness of the appeal that disarms: Isn't it our right, the donor seemed to be asking, to be rich?

(H/T Greg Sargent.)

Off again, on again: So much for the hope (in some quarters) that the Volcker rule would be scrapped. Jamie Dimon led a cadre of bank chieftains into a meeting with Fed governor Daniel Tarullo yesterday, presumably to criticize the rule. Nonetheless, the Dealbook reports that regulators are hammering out the final language, and think they're back on track to meet the July deadline set forth in Dodd-Frank.

North rises: Canadian banks have gone on a buying spree as U.S. and European banks shed assets in the wake of impending doom, with the six largest banks from the Great White North dropping a cool $38 billion on acquisitions since 2008. The upshot: Canada is home to four of the world's top 10 strongest banks, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports. (JPMorgan is the strongest U.S. bank, according to Markets, clocking in at 13th worldwide.)

P&Ls: For those who have already gotten over the disturbing story linking the influx of casino cash to dead horses at New York State racetracks, the Journal figured out which Kentucky Derby entrants have been the best investments.

Somebody Screamed: Sotheby's sold Edvard Munch’s The Scream for a record $119.9 million last night, smashing the mark for art-at-auction, set at Christie's in 2010. Gallerist has the action.

If you're into that kind of thing: The blogger who brought you the Anonymous Finance Guy Who Pays for Sex is back, this time with the Anonymous Wall Street Escort Who Wants to Tell Clients They’re Bad in Bed.

[Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images]