oldlures1

EU Moves to Regulate the Rating Agencies; SEC Should Follow Suit

I sure wish this notion could get legs; be more visible. However, at this juncture, I'm afraid the rating agencies are going to get off scott free. They've torched the stage, and extited stage left without anyone realizing it!

Rating Agencies Target Guarantors to Deflect Subprime Blame

Mr. Brown, I hear your frustration, and for what it's worth, I feel it as well! It is astonishing that no one is questioning the rating agencies actions, no one of authority that is. Their capricious and subjective decision-making seems so obvious, so blatant, and yet they're allowed to continue unchecked. It is maddening!

valuemanager03 - I strongly disagree. If MBI and ABK were allowed to keep their AAA; as they should pursuant to their capital adequancy and financial performance, they could continue writing business (as they were doing, albeit at far less volume, depsite what you read in the headlines), the mkt turmoil would eventually dissipate in time and the reputation of both companies would recover, again...in time. They don't need the new business to protect current policyholders, so there is no...I repeat, no...reason for them to have been downgraded in the first place.

With regard to the rating agencies, I've got say, it must be to operate with impunity, completely unaccountable for your actions...even if doing so ruins otherwise viable going concerns.

I'm a firm believer in free-market capitalism, but this is NOT what I had in mind. This is just plain wrong!