Expiating the Ratters’ Guilt: McGraw Hill

The ratings agencies are just the guys who sold cutlery to the financial Jeffery Dahmers

Not Harold Whittlesey “Terry” McGraw III
Chairman and Chief Preppy Officer
The McGraw Hill Cos. (MHP)

Related, ancient and modern, after the downgrade

Last October, a hedge-fund manager asked McGraw-Hill Cos. Chairman and Chief Executive Harold McGraw III whether bond ratings downgraded by the company’s Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services unit amid recent market turmoil should have ever been issued in the first place.

“What we do is provide access to the capital market,” Mr. McGraw responded. “If the market wants those kinds of products and the institutional investors want those products, then we move with the market and we’re going to rate whatever.”

Surely “we’re going to ratt whatever whatever.” 

McGraw Scion Grapples With S&P's Woes
by Aaron Luchetti
The Wall Street Journal Aug. 2 2008

So how much of McGraw-Hill's good fortune is due to its prime assets and how much to Mr. McGraw's leadership?

Surely “McGraw's enabling securities fraud on an overwhelming scale?” 

McGraw-Hill...has scored big on its ownership of S&P, the debt-rating company that has cashed in on the explosion in corporate debt offerings and the structured-finance markets. [Emphasis added]

At McGraw-Hill, an Heir Takes Over and the Company Flourishes
by Geraldine Fabrikant
The New York Times Jun. 27 2005