Credit and blame
The rating agencies operate on shaky foundations
AS OSCAR WILDE might have said, it is the unspeakable in pursuit of the unrateable. America's Congress is holding hearings on the subprime-mortgage shambles and the losses that have resulted. The firms that must be feeling most nervous about the outcome are Standard & Poor's (S&P), Moody's and Fitch.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Credit and blame”
From the September 8th 2007 edition
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