Gerald

The Abysmal Track Records of Moody's, Fitch and S&P

If the rating agencies were held to the same level of responsibility and transparency as public accountants things would be different. The easiest way to get a handle on them would be to ask them to function under the same rules of professional conduct as the public accountants: there are many similarities between the two particularly since both involve providing opinions on financial information. However this would force them to a much higher level of transparency and also require them to spell out clearly their principles for credit ratings. This could turn out to be an unpleasant surprise.