I think the ratings agencies have done a horrible job over the past decade, and acted like a rubber stamp on many of these instruments that crashed. They deserve a solid chunk of the culpability, but seem to be escaping unscathed! How did all these highly rated assets suddenly crash?
Yeah, the banks are themselves the root cause, no question. But wouldn't it have been good if the agencies that were rating these instruments actually demanded to know what was in them and rated them accordingly?
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"The problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence."
—Bill Clinton
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge."
—Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, former Librarian of Congress
"But the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity"
—WKRP in Cincinatti
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