S&P puts a warning shot over the US Gov't bow.

[dirkterrell]

No. I guess that means you win

People that don't work for ratings agencies obviously cannot have valid opinions about their function or priorities.

I mean really, people shouldn't even be commenting in this thread unless they have at least a Masters in economics.

Agreed. Argument by authority failure. The AAA ratings these firms gave to a slew of MBS products that turned out to be junk (and maintaining those ratings months after loans were defaulting) certainly give rise to suspicion about their integrity. When the banks that sell the securities are the ones paying for the ratings, it creates an environment where fraud is too tempting. The issues may not have been systemic (i.e. it was rogue employees) but even so, that speaks to a weakness in their management structure.

[GaribaldiCU]

Agreed. Argument by authority failure. The AAA ratings these firms gave to a slew of MBS products that turned out to be junk (and maintaining those ratings months after loans were defaulting) certainly give rise to suspicion about their integrity. When the banks that sell the securities are the ones paying for the ratings, it creates an environment where fraud is too tempting. The issues may not have been systemic (i.e. it was rogue employees) but even so, that speaks to a weakness in their management structure.

Hence the old saw that the ratings agencies are the last to admit there's a problem.