Agreed, they should throw it out, but they're also throwing out a paycheck. FWIW, I was just parroting Nate Silver's section on the financial crisis. He ident

Agreed, they should throw it out, but they're also throwing out a paycheck. FWIW, I was just parroting Nate Silver's section on the financial crisis. He identifies the ratings agencies as one of the several groups responsible for the downfall. In S&N, Silver discusses how the ratings agencies gave their ratings software to the banks, so the banks could "dry-run" their tranches to get the best ratings available. They were more than just complicit -- they actively enabled the financial groups to game the ratings.