Time to Downgrade the Three Big Rating Agencies?

Despite their self-proclaimed independent status, ratings agencies are more likely to influence than merely act as observers. This has been only too evident in the role the agencies played in the global economic downturn. So why is it we put so much faith in rating agencies when they get it wrong so often?

Rating Agencies: Triple A junk

After all, wasn’t it agencies such as Moody and S&P that applied an AAA stamp to subprime mortgage backed CDOs, defending their actions even while downgrading the very same institutions? When investors sued, the agencies declared...