While much of the anger surrounding the mortgage meltdown was focused on shady mortgage lenders and investment banks, a less-discussed but nonetheless culpable party were the credit-rating agencies that rubber-stamped mortgage-backed securities that were sometimes worth about as much as a used lottery ticket. [More]
moody’s
SEC Warns S&P It May Sue Them
By 9.28.11
In an unprecedented move, the SEC warned S&P that it might be suing it over its rating of a mortgage-backed bond. It’s the first warning a credit rating firm has gotten over its behavior leading up to the financial crisis. [More]
Moody's: Feds Less Likely To Bail Out Bank Of America If Needed
By 9.21.11
Earlier today, the folks at Moody’s Investors Service cut Bank of America’s credit ratings after it came to the decision that, should the nation’s largest bank fail, it would be less likely to receive bailout support from the federal government. [More]
Americans Falling Behind On Credit Card Payments Again
By 12.31.09
As a country, we were doing pretty well paying down our credit card debt for most of 2009, but according to Moody’s Investor Services, the number of people who are behind on their payments rose slightly in November. [More]
Wall Street Hoped They'd Be "Wealthy And Retired" Before The House of Cards Fell
By 10.23.08
If you’re wondering why all these supposedly smart people bought bullsh*t securities made up of pools of overpriced mortgages given to broke people with crap credit — it’s time for you to meet the rating agencies. Rating agencies are the folks who decide the “quality” of investments. They’re the ones who decided that these securities deserved a AAA (read: awesome) rating. Did they know that they were passing junk off as gold? Um, yeah, according to reports from Bloomberg and the New York Times. It looks like they sorta did.
