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Whenever I look at a story about Moody's, S&P and so on, there's almost always two types of comments: people who are threatened by their decisions (and discredi
by ticks 14y ago
Whenever I look at a story about Moody's, S&P and so on, there's almost always two types of comments: people who are threatened by their decisions (and discredit them) and people who feel vindicated (and think the decision is great). I don't know what to believe, but I would hope that these entities are less subordinate these days.
- jordanb 14y agoFor me, I think the ratings agencies are useless because most of their ratings are stating the obvious after the fact. What use would a weather man be who tells you that it rained yesterday, but that the weather conditions tomorrow are still under review at the present time.
- meric 14y agoIf you were a public servant in charge of investing the local government's funds, and your instructions were "invest the funds in moderately risky investments"... What does "moderately risky" mean? It's certainly not Treasury bonds. You think, say, investing in basket of stocks in the NASDAQ is moderately risky, but are you really sure that's what your superiors want, are you really that sure of your opinion to bet your job on it? Or would you invest in asset X because Moody said it was moderately risky? Did everyone know Nokia is junk before Moody downgraded it? The after-the-fact rating at least ensures everyone who matters knows it.