This helped him to avoid staleness and the sensual bluntness that breeds mistakes.

CNN: James Bond on Her Majesty's Secret Service

Issuers prefer staleness for "stability's" sake, and rating agencies are happy to stick with a business model that relies on infrequent rating revisions to minimize costs.

FORBES

Meanwhile, the Dodd-Frank approach does nothing to address the most obvious root causes of damage to the financial system--conflict of interest due to the issuer-pays model and staleness of ratings.

FORBES