Comments on: Et tu, S&P

By: akleinschmidt

akleinschmidt — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 06:59:45 +0000

This is absolute nonsense. At least S and P have learned from their earlier mistakes and are now doing the right thing. It would be great if the politicians, bankers and other assorted “experts” would do the same thing

By: StoneStAdvisors

StoneStAdvisors — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 19:51:25 +0000

ACA was the portfolio selection agent on ABACUS, no? As such they had the ability and duty to perform due diligence on every security that went into the reference portfolio. Either they did & were convinced their performance would be fine, or they didn’t and they failed in their fiduciary duty.

Also, and more importantly, the way Ratings Agencies rate sovereign debt (and corporate) is much different than the way they rate structured products. Comparing their failures in structured finance to this recent sovereign downgrade is not really a comparison worth making at all.

By: Hewson

Hewson — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 16:38:31 +0000

I’m puzzled that serious investors still give any credence or consideration whatsoever to the posturings of rating agencies. Their credibility was shot to bits in 2008 when their collective, egg-covered faces emerged from the wreckage of the sub-prime debacle. They pontificate on the credit-worthiness of nations around the globe yet failed to get their own basis sums right when it really counted.

The sooner governments act in unison to put a spanner in the works of these incompetent clowns the better. There has to be a better way to weigh up a country’s credit worthiness without the intervention of organisations with such a lousy track record and the possibility of vested interests being a consideration in their reports.

By: tommycarstensen

tommycarstensen — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 17:52:33 +0000

Wasn’t it the same S&P that *down*graded ACA Capital, before it went bust and very much causing it to go bust? They shouldn’t have had an A rating in the first place though…